Overview

In 1990, Tony Award-winning Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang led protests in New York against the casting of Jonathan Pryce as a Eurasian in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon. Two years later David Henry Hwang mistakenly cast a Caucasian actor,Marcus G. Dahlman, in the lead Asian role of his own play, Face Value, and desperately tries to save his own face by passing Marcus off as a Siberian Jew. Meanwhile, he and his father become embroiled in the anti-Chinese paranoia that swept through the US, and he finds himself needing to reflect on his own face.

The Obie Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize finalist Yellow Face, by David Henry Hwang, explores the impact race has had on the East Asian experience in America. The play straddles the line between reality and fiction and brings to light the nuances of race, culture and belonging. Fast-paced and hilarious, but also poignant and moving, Yellow Face kick starts the timely and much-needed discussion on race in an entertaining and approachable manner.

Yellow Face straddles the line between reality and fiction, questioning what race really means, looking at how politics and media interact in our society and, ultimately, asking us to reflect on who we really are.

First seen in the UK at the Park Theatre, London, in 2013 Yellowface then played at the National Theatre the following summer.