The Play that Could Have Been
By Jordan Ikeda
Rafu Staff Writer
Saturday, February 28, 2009

First time playwright Paul Kikuchi gets equal parts right and wrong in EWP’s newest play “Ixnay.”

Photo by MICHAEL LAMONT/EWP
The cast of Aaron Takahashi, Dante Basco, Ellen Williams and June Lu recoil in fear as Gedde Watanabe swings a Japanese katana in EWP’s “Ixnay.”

East West Players (EWP) is known for innovative, fresh and at times genre-bending plays that not only promote Asian American talent, but honest-to-goodness talent in general.
So, EWP’s newest comedic play, “Ix­nay,” written by Paul Kikuchi and directed by Jeff Liu, had a lot to live up to.

In fact, the script mirrors its main protagonist Raymond Kobayashi (Aaron Takahashi) who finds himself dead from a car crash and waiting at the reincarnation station to be sent back to earth. Kobayashi, a Sansei owner of a fishing store in his former life, had not quite lived up to his family’s lofty expectations.

Kobayashi embodies the “average JA,” and yet exudes an un-Asian-like fire about him that leads him to hold up the reincarnation process for everyone else by refusing to return as a Japanese American.

“Everyone else” includes a Chinese American dentist (Matthew Yang King), a Samoan American woman (Ellen D. Williams), a Filipino American youth (Dante Basco) and a Korean American grandmother (June Kyoko Lu). None of them are too happy with the specially chosen Kobayashi’s decision.

Enter the subject matter of the plot.

Making jokes about stereotypes is a tricky business, and it takes the right balance of tact and insight to pull off. Kikuchi, a first time playwright, is a bit fresh off the boat in this regard. For every moment that produces genuine laugh-out-loud cleverness, there is an equal amount that induces groans and eye rolls.

Don’t get it twisted, his writing can be extremely sharp and witty and the concept of the play is most definitely innovative. It takes a heck of a writer to embody five different ethnicities and make it all believable. I mean, how many plays ever produced in the States have featured a Samoan American character that isn’t hula dancing?

Summarized, “Ixnay” is nuggets of gold mixed with great potential.

But unrealized potential sometimes is dangerous. For example, the idea ban­died about of the Asian American totem pole has vast promise, but it simply isn’t enough to label people, point out their different tendencies and then chuckle at them. The play introduces this concept and then lets it remain static as if Hmong really are the “bottom” Asian class.

That, in a word, is unacceptable. And as much as I loved getting my inner Guy Aoki on, the reverse racism that is present against the lone Cau­casian character simply maintains a status quo mindset instead of creating a new platform from which to move forward. Without giving too much away, he is the only character to not change his mind at the end.
The curious lack of forward progres­sion exemplified in moments of humor that remain grounded in known and accepted stereotypes, holds back the characters as much as Kobayashi’s refusal to return to earth does.

Of course, being that the play is an EWP production, there’s still plenty to like.

Mixing the subtle facial ticks and vocal inflections that remind of a more sinister, clever version of Kramer from “Seinfeld,” Gedde Watanabe gives an outstanding performance as Tadashi Ozaki, the Japanese American head honcho of the reincarnation station.

He’s both enormously likeable and in a flash dastardly and is worth the price of admission all on his own.

Not to be outdone, the rest of the cast keeps pace. Yang King is a riot. Williams is a delight. Lu embodies “slapstick” comedy. And Basco has some show-stealing moments—his Michael Jackson moon-walking one of the many highlights of the evening.

The star-studded cast will keep even the most politi­cally correct out there entertained. Added together with the moments of levity that do work, “Ixnay” ends up as an overall enjoyable experience.

In fact, it is the diversity of the cast and the natural distinctions of the various Asian ethnicities that are the driving force behind the play, proving that when he steps outside of the jokes, Kikuchi does an excellent job of creating individuals.

There is a true gem of a story in “Ixnay,” leaving one to wonder what would have been if Kikuchi had simply sent the script on its own trip through the reincarnation station.
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“IXNAY” runs now through March 15 with perfor­mances on Wednesday through Sunday at the David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St. in Little Tokyo. For more information or for tickets visit www.eastwest­players.org or call (213) 625-7000.
Ixnay