The San Francisco Mime Troupe Reader

The Dragon Lady’s Revenge

The Dragon Lady’s Revenge 1971 Script by Joan Holden, Patricia Silver, Andrea Snow, and Jael Weisman with Sharon Lockwood Introduction The play was inspired by an article in Ramparts, “The New Opium War” (May 1971), breaking the story of the CIA involvement in Indochina opium trade. It combines the style of the Terry and the Pirates comic strip with spy movies from the 1940s such as Shanghai Gesture. The troupe billed it as “An International Spy Thriller Mystery Love Comedy Hoax.” The complex plot involves the son of the U.S. ambassador to Long Pinh, a bar called the White Monkey run by the Dragon Lady, a bar girl named Blossom, a puppet president supported by the United States, a drug murder, and the exposé of Mr. Big, in charge of drug traf‹c. The show received excellent reviews at home and on tour and won the company its second Obie Award. Dragon Lady was also the company’s most successful early attempt at collective writing. The troupe successfully revived it in 1987 during the Iran-Contra hearings that implicated the U.S. government in cocaine trade in Central America. Commentary Joan Holden Five of us made up a story, stealing a lot from the movies, and three of us took turns writing scenes. (“Collective Playmaking: The Why and the How,” Theatre Quarterly 5 [June–August 1975]: 30) Ed Levey I was doing Shakespeare at Berkeley Rep when I saw Dragon Lady in the park. I had known something was missing in my work, and I realized its relevance to today. They were replacing the actor playing Clyde. I auditioned, got the part, and stayed with the troupe through 1978. I had to learn a new 91 acting style, a new group of people, and it was a crash course in politics. Being in the Troupe has made me picky about theater ever since. (Telephone interview by Susan Vaneta Mason, 18 July 2002) Andrea Snow When major moments hinge on the use of a crucial prop, as they do in The Dragon Lady’s Revenge, it’s easy to imagine the shock of the actor who realizes that he forgot to bring his prop on stage. In that instant of discovery, when he reaches into his costume and ‹nds nothing, the actor has no choice but to press on and commit to whatever pops into his (or her) skull. This happened many times during the run of the play, not least of all with me. Once as the Dragon Lady I danced this seductive tango with the Lieutenant, and as we sank to the ›oor, I was supposed to produce a syringe from the folds of my gown. When I realized I’d forgotten the needle, I reached for a hair ornament (an old Christmas tree decoration that was sewn into my wig and looked like an inverted spider), leaned my head over the Lieutenant’s arm and jabbed him with one of the spidery “legs.” Thanks to Michael Christensen (the Lieutenant), who immediately swooned as if drugged, the bizarre attack of the hair ornament made perfect sense. (Letter to Susan Vaneta Mason, 23 July 2002) Frank Browning and Banning Garrett Adding glamour to the labyrinthine intrigue of Vietnam’s opium trade throughout the late 1950s and early ’60s was the famous Madame Nhu, the Dragon Lady of Saigon. (“The New Opium War,” Ramparts, May 1971, 37) Wilma Bonet The Mime Troupe was one of the ‹rst theatres that I saw when I came out here from New York. I saw The Dragon Lady’s Revenge at a park in Berkeley and said, “Yes! That’s what theatre is about.” (Quoted in “Forty Years with the San Francisco Mime Troupe,” Callboard, December 1999, 22) Jack Kroll A savagely partisan show in its depiction of nefarious American politicos and military men and South Vietnamese of‹cials, it also transcends partisanship in its skewering assault on archetypal greed and villainy. (Newsweek, 22 January 1973, 65) Robert Hurwitt The play is a broadly satirical, hilarious, but deeply disturbing, tale of covert operations, casual corruption, military adventurism, and deniability. (East Bay Express, 17 July 1987) The San Francisco Mime Troupe Reader 92 The Dragon Lady’s Revenge 93 The Production The Dragon Lady’s Revenge opened on August 1971 in Washington Square Park, San Francisco, with the following cast: Harold Larry Pisoni Clyde Michael Christensen Drooley Jael Weisman Tran Dog Randall Craig Ambassador Jason Harris Rong Q Joan Mankin Blossom Sharon Lockwood Dragon...