Amy Tan's best-selling novel dealt with four young first-generation Chinese-American women and their relationships with their mothers, who were émigrés from China. Each of the four tales deals with generational conflict and the ways in which the lives of the mothers cast a shadow, for good or ill, on the lives of the daughters. And the daughters gain new respect for the endurance, strength, and wisdom of their mothers. Playwright Susan Kim provides a literate and intelligent adaptation of Tan's novel, capturing most of its important plot lines, but she faced major difficulties in reducing such a huge, wide-ranging work to manageable proportions. The result can sometimes seem like a synopsis — CliffsNotes to the novel. The events are all there, more or less, but inevitably their emotional richness and resonance are somewhat reduced, though Kim finds considerable comedy in the mother-daughter clashes. As one daughter observes, "To tell a Chinese mother to shut up is to risk becoming an accessory to your own murder." Most memorable of the fine performances is by Emily Kuroda as the embattled An-Mei Hsu, mother of Rose (Jennifer Chang). Hsu's story is traced almost from cradle to grave, as she copes with the baffling complexities of rigid Chinese social structures, escapes to America, and suffers the loss of a son. Also impressive is Karen Huie as the stern, unyielding Lindo Jong — mother of Waverly Jong (Celeste Den) — who was forced to abandon her two daughters in China before coming to the U.S., and also as the clever and resourceful mother of An-Mei. David Stanbra demonstrates versatility by playing all four of the Caucasian husbands. Director Jon Lawrence Rivera has assembled a large and able cast, each actor playing at least two roles, and mounted an elegant production. Set designer John H. Binkley handsomely combines a giant Chinese scroll with a shabby tenement. Dori Quan provides a fine array of costumes, from period Chinese to American semicontemporary, and Jeremy Pivnick's lighting and Nathan Wang's sound design and original music add flavor and subtly shifting atmosphere.
Presented by East West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theater, Union Center for the Arts, 120 Judge John Aiso St., L.A. Nov. 12-Dec. 21. Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (213) 625-7000, ext. 12, or www.eastwestplayers.org.