Stephanie Shum as Jennifer and Hyunmin Rhee as Albert in TheatreSquared’s “Tiger Style!”
Photo: Wesley Hitt
After the year (two years?) we’ve all had, several of us could use a laugh. Something irreverent. Something hilarious.
Fortunately for all of us, the new show opening at TheatreSquared this week is being billed as all of those things, and more.
The play is called Tiger Style! by playwright Mike Lew, and it opens on Wednesday, Feb. 23 at TheatreSquared in downtown Fayetteville.
From the description of the show:
Siblings Albert and Jennifer Chen once reached the pinnacle of academic achievement and even performed at Carnegie Hall. Now in their 30s, though, they’re on the verge of being branded as epic failures. Should they take responsibility for their lives—or just blame their parents? Determined to find the root of their problems, the Chens launch an “Asian Freedom Tour” that takes them back to their childhood home in California—and then all the way to China.
This laugh-out-loud comedy also packs an emotional wallop as Albert and Jennifer’s journey leads them to a better understanding of who they are and what, if anything, that means.
Tiger Style is directed by Chongren Fan, a New York-based bilingual stage director from Shanghai, China. Fan is also the artistic director of Yangtze Repertory Theatre of America, and resident artist/producing associate at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, both in New York.
The show stars Hyunmin Rhee (Emperor’s Nightingale) as Albert, Stephanie Shum as Jennifer, along with actors Brandon Ruiter, Brian Kim McCormick, and Eileen Rivera in multiple roles.
“Tiger Style! is comic dynamite,” said T2 artistic director Robert Ford in a press release issued last week. “But it’s also a moving, earnest conversation about the immigrant experience, measuring up to our parents’ expectations, and the realities that so many Americans navigate in so many different ways.”
Performances are scheduled Tuesday through Saturday from Feb. 31-March 31.
Tickets to the show range from $20-$54. SNAP benefit recipients may purchase tickets for $1, and students and patrons under 30 can purchase tickets for just $10.
To purchase tickets, or for a full performance schedule, visit theatre2.org.
