Asian American Plays for a New Generation: Plays for a New Generation

6. Bahala Na (Let It Go)

6 Bahala Na (Let It Go) Clarence Coo Introduction, by Josephine Lee B ahala Na was produced by Mu Performing Arts and presented at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis from September 14, 2007, to October 7, 2007, under the direction of Jennifer Weir. As Bahala Na begins, Amah, a one-hundred-year-old Chinese grandmother, lies in a hospital, felled by a stroke; as the play ends, we see her wake to a moment of reconciliation with her gay grandson, Jason, who introduces her to his adopted baby daughter. The story, as we might guess, is a weighty one: one that traces her life from her arranged marriage to a Chinese man in the Philippines through the brutal events of Japanese occupation and her difficult relationship with her only son, who defies her wishes and marries a Filipina. But this is not Roots; what at the onset might be a predictable story about the heroism and endurance of our forebears turns out to be something else entirely. Coo depicts Amah’s prejudices, idiosyncrasies, and deceptions as openly as he does her will to survive and her longing for love. Bahala Na depicts an Asian American family history that is told in contradictory ways and shaped by multiple forces of migration, interethnic struggle, Illustration: Eric Sharp, Katie Bradley, Jeany Park, Mayano Ochi, Alexander Galick, and Rose Le Tran in Bahala Na. (Photograph used by permission of Charissa Uemura Photography.) 224 • Clarence Coo class conflict, colonialism, gender, and sexuality. The play deeply questions the integrity and viability of conventional notions of family and makes us think harder about how we are connected by blood, love, and affiliation. About the Play Bahala Na was selected for production through Mu Performing Arts Emerging Writers of Color call for submissions and was further developed and produced with funding from the Ford Foundation. Characters (original cast) Amah (Jeany Park): a one-hundred-year-old Chinese woman in a wheelchair Jason (Eric Sharp): Amah’s grandson Wei Wei (Eric Sharp): Amah’s son and Jason’s father Young Amah (Mayano Ochi): Amah’s memory of her younger self Teresa (Mayano Ochi): Wei Wei’s Filipino wife First Daughter (Katie Bradley): Amah’s first daughter, the sour one Ang Cho An (Katie Bradley): Amah’s husband Second Daughter (Rose Le Tran): Amah’s second daughter, the sweet one Amah’s Father (Rose Le Tran): a memory of a young Japanese man Dan (Alexander Galick): Jason’s partner, Scene 1 A room in a hospital in Washington, D.C., 2004. Amah sits motionless in a wheelchair, staring at nothing. Jason and Dan are looking at her. JASON: Look at her. DAN: I’ll be honest, Jason. I’m kind of sick of looking at your grandmother. JASON: I come back after all this time and this happens to her. DAN: I told you. Stop blaming yourself. JASON: She was always talking. You couldn’t shut her up. She had an opinion about everything. Now she’s totally silent. It’s eerie. DAN: It is eerie. So let’s go. JASON: Dan, I can’t leave her now. DAN: Yes you can. You’re not doing anyone any favors by staying. JASON: We just got here. DAN: She doesn’t even know we’re here. JASON: Dan, I know she knows we’re here. DAN: And even if she does, what does it matter? I thought she hated me. JASON: She doesn’t hate you. Bahala Na (Let It Go) • 225 DAN: She resents me. JASON: Exactly. DAN: For not being Chinese. Oh yeah, that I’m not a woman. JASON: She’s old-fashioned. DAN: Remember how she yelled at me when you introduced me to her. JASON: Dan, that was five years ago. She won’t yell at you now. I promise. DAN: Come on. Let’s go. JASON: Please, Dan. A little longer? DAN: You can stay a little longer. I’m going down the street to get some coffee . I haven’t had any since we left Chicago. You want any? JASON: No, thanks. DAN: And she’s OK without coffee, I presume. (Dan tries to exit, but First Daughter and Second Daughter enter.) FIRST DAUGHTER (to Jason): Oh, so you’re still here. JASON: Tita Beatriz. Tita Dominga. FIRST DAUGHTER: You made her this way, you know. SECOND DAUGHTER: Beatriz, I thought you weren’t going to mention that. FIRST DAUGHTER: I want...