Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's China Trilogy: Three Parables of Global Capital

The World of Extreme Happiness; Snow in Midsummer; The King of Hell's Palace

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Joshua Chambers-Letson, Christine Mok, Joshua Chambers-Letson, Christine Mok

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350234390
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

"Some playwrights have a gift to amuse; Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig has a darker gift. Anyone with romantic notions of Chinese culture will be unsettled by the jagged, unsentimental portrait of modern urban China." (Chicago Reader) Poetic and devastating, sensuous and politically acute, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's China Plays explore the forces of global capital as they explode within the lives of everyday people in contemporary China. This volume collects together the three plays in the series, including Cowhig's exploration of the human cost of development in China's socialist market economy ( The World of Extreme Happiness ), of justice and revenge amidst ecological and economic catastrophe ( Snow in Midsummer ), and the tale of the trade in blood that brought the AIDS crisis to rural China ( The King of Hell's Palace ). In addition to Cowhig's plays, the volume includes a host of supplemental materials including an editorial preface and three (previously published) brief essays responding to each play by the editor, Joshua Chambers-Letson; a new introduction by theatre/performance scholar and dramaturg Christine Mok that explores the key themes in Cowhig's body of work; a summary discussion between Cowhig, Chambers-Letson, and Mok, on Cowhig's process and the political and aesthetic currents animating her work. The World of Extreme Happiness: " Fearless, zippily-paced, and satirical... Cowhig forces us down the long hard look path" (Independent) Snow in Midsummer: "Gripping and affecting… graceful and impassioned" (Times) The King of Hell's Palace: "A medical-scandal drama that we can't afford to ignore" (Telegraph)

The King of Hell’s Palace

The King of Hell’s Palace was first staged at the Goodman Theatre’s Owen Theatre (Robert Falls, Artistic Director; Roche Schulfer, Executive Director), Chicago Illinois, on September 25, 2016. The cast for this workshop production was as follows:

Yin-Yin / Pei-Pei	Jo Mei
Lili / Pearl	Celeste Den
Shen / Kuan	C.S. Lee
Wen / Minister Li	Wai Yim
Luo Na / Dr. Gao	Mia Park
Old Yang / Wang Wei	James Saito
Little Yi	Rammel Chan
Jasmine / Han-Han	Michelle Krusiec
Director	Tea Alagić
Scenic Design	Kevin Depinet
Costume Design	Rachel Lambert
Lighting Design	Jesse Klug
Sound Design	Richard Woodbury
Dramaturg	Rebecca Adelsheim
Stage Manager	Jonathan Nook

The King of Hell’s Palace was originally commissioned and developed by the Goodman Theatre and the Royal National Theatre.

The King of Hell’s Palace was first staged in the United Kingdom at the Hampstead Theatre (Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director; Greg Ripley-Duggan, Executive Producer), London, on September 5, 2019. The cast for this world premiere production was as follows:

Yin-Yin / Luo Na	Celeste Den
Lili / An Mei / Ruzhen	Tuyen Do
Shen / Han-Han	Christopher Goh
Wen / Johnny	Vincent Lai
Kuan / Wang Wei	Kok-Hwa Lie
Old Yang / Minister Li	Togo Igawa
Jasmine / Pei-Pei	Millicent Wong
Little Yi / Peter	Aiden Cheng
Director	Michael Boyd
Designer	Tom Piper
Lighting Design	Colin Grenfell
Composer & Sound Design	Nicola Chang
Movement	Liz Ranken
Fight Directors	Rachel Bown-Williams & Ruth Cooper-Brown

Cast, with Possible Doubling

Kuan, 38. Migrant worker.

Also plays: Wang Wei, 39. Ministry of Health employee.

Police Officer 4.

Wen, 35. Migrant worker. Kuan’s brother.

Also plays: Johnny, 31. Executive at Phoenix Pharmaceutical.

Xiao Kang, 27. Public Security Officer.

Shen, 32. Ministry of Health employee. Yin-Yin’s husband. Wang Wei’s brother.

Also plays: Han-Han, 19. Luo Na’s son.

Postman Zhou, 45. Rural mailman.

Police Officer 2.

Yin-Yin, 31. Infectious disease specialist.

Also plays: Luo Na, 37. Rural blood seller.

Jasmine, 24. Ministry of Health employee.

Also plays: Pei-Pei, 14. Kuan’s daughter.

Little Yi, 16. Wen and Lili’s son.

Also plays: Peter, 25. Executive at Phoenix Pharmaceutical.

Police Officer 3.

Public Security Officer.

Lili, 34. Potato farmer. Wen’s wife. Luo Na’s sister.

Also plays: An Mei, 29. Public Security Officer.

Ruzhen, 30. Lab Technician.

Old Yang, 65. Potato farmer. Kuan & Wen’s father.

Also plays: Minister Li, 59. Minister of Health.

Police Officer 1.

Place and Time

Rural and urban Henan province. 1992 and 1998.

Act One

Scene One

A rural highway in Henan. Early February, 1992. Sunset on the eve of Chinese New Year. Kuan and Wen, brothers and migrant workers, move briskly along the side of the road, weighed down by overstuffed canvas bags.

Wen Deng Xiaoping says, “It doesn’t matter if the cat is white or black. As long as it catches mice, it is a very good cat.”

Kuan Black cats are bad luck.

Wen That’s called “backwards thinking.” We survived the biggest tragedy of the twentieth century—

Kuan That German killed more.

Wen Mao caused five times as many deaths. His ghost must be pissed the German’s getting more credit. We’re survivors. Can we agree on that?

Kuan I agree we’re not dead.

Wen Which means: it’s time to have bigger dreams!

Kuan Things are better now.

Wen Compared to disaster.

Kuan Our fields are fertile. They produce high yields—

Wen Of a crop worth less than paper. Half our potatoes feed pigs. The famine is over! Why grow a plant that yields so little profit we spend fifty weeks a year in the mines and go home for two weeks?

Kuan Potatoes are practical.

Wen Deng Xiaoping wants to help us get rich. He won’t succeed if we cling to ancient ideas and reject modern thinking. Let’s switch to a cash crop, stay home and live...