“Cardinal” At the Tony Kiser Theater

When Lydia Lensky (Anna Chlumsky) resolves to paint her hometown red, she isn’t celebrating. Her town, home of childhood memories and friends, is faltering. It’s a Rust Belt town that used to ship axles down a river that “doesn’t even exist anymore,” and the red color, emulating Morocco’s blue city Chefchaouen that boasts 258 hotels and 9,000 European tourists per year, is supposed to spur an economic comeback. She lobbies her idea to Mayor Jeff Torm (Adam Pally), with whom she has a convoluted romantic relationship, and finally garners enough support to go forward with it.

What does the red mean? It might be the color of bloodshed, luck (in China), communism, or maybe it was chosen because the other primary colors were taken by Chefchaouen and Izamal, Mexico.

“Cardinal,” recently shown at the Tony Kiser Theater, has a way of capturing layers of meanings and themes within seemingly simple dialogue. It discusses problems shared by many American Rust Belt towns and communities beyond them, like Asian stigma, sexism, gun violence, and romance.

A theme explored in one of the boldest ways was race and Asian American identity. I am torn over whether it was portrayed in a necessary or a negative light, but with Asian Americans being underrepresented in American theater, it was a provocative story representing a complex topic. It revolves around Li-Wei and Jason Chen, father and son, who open a string of new businesses. Throughout the play, there is the lingering notion that the townspeople who have been settled for many years have a predisposition against the newcomers—not because of the sudden influx, but because they bring a new culture. There is widespread fear that the beloved town will become a new Chinatown. A Tribune article within the play discusses Chinese entrepreneurs always being one step ahead. With the closing of a bakery, Bread & Buttons, and several families (long-time inhabitants of the town) moving away, it makes you question whether the economic benefit of painting the town red did any good at all. “Isn’t a place about the people in it?”

At times, I wonder whether the playwright, Greg Pierce, meant for us to side with Lydia’s relatively welcoming attitude towards Asian Americans or with the others’ reluctance to see them. While there is an emotional appeal to the latter, the play somewhat rationalizes xenophobia. Moreover, while Li-Wei and Jason Chen are meant to be realistic, yet perhaps caricatured Chinese Americans, their portrayal is questionable—especially father Chen, a shameless, headstrong character with a thick accent bent on building his business empire by advertising Chinese goods and a false history in a predominantly non-Asian town.

Nonetheless, “Cardinal” is a relevant play, and turns out to be an optimistic one that reinforces our sense of community. I think plays like “Cardinal” do far more good than harm, and with other Asian American plays like “M. Butterfly” and “Office Hour” being viewed in NYC, “Cardinal” adds color to the scene. It also has the benefit of being able to be viewed and appreciated through so many lenses. It exhibits tremendous artistic and acting talent, including three actors I had the opportunity to speak to: “Happy Endings” and “The Mindy Project” actor Adam Pally, five-time Emmy nominee and “Veep” actress Anna Chlumsky, and Stuyvesant’s own Eugene Young (’02).

Adam Pally, who had no prior theater roles, emphasized how much he enjoyed working with this cast. Chlumsky and Young, too, remarked on this.

Chlumsky’s character Lydia is a personal favorite—as Li-Wei remarks, she’s a strong woman, and she has a well-meaning, enterprising spirit despite many tragic decisions. An incredibly successful television actress, Chlumsky describes theater as more of an endurance sport—you know each time you put on a show where the characters will end up, whereas you may not in television. Having acknowledged that the play was loaded with messages before I saw it, she said that she wanted the audience to be moved, and to question their sense of change, identity, and community. I think the play did just that.

Eugene Young’s character, Jason, is as much of a favorite. Jason is a Stanford graduate, a little bit of a stoner, kind, not exactly timid, but overshadowed by his father. He finds himself torn between his own dream of being a high school English teacher and the grip of his father, who wills him to inherit the business empire he is building in the town. His internal conflict—who he wants to be versus who he wants to want to be—is reminiscent of much in our own lives.

He played a more eccentric character in 02’s senior SING!, a whodunnit where someone stole the pins (or something similar) from the bowling alley Chunky Lanes: Fabrizio, a man who hung around the alley. He had skintight clothes, spiky hair, and an unplaceable accent, and sang “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me.” Through his several formative experiences growing up doing theater, starring in senior SING! was a “turning point.” In the former tradition where winners were announced and everyone swarmed into the first-floor lobby, a friend threw him up onto his shoulders and then there was total silence. Then he screamed “SENIOR SING!” and the crowd erupted. He recounted, “It was the top…top one moment of my life.” In a way, theater for Young has been about chasing that high.

While Young has appeared on shows like “Veep,” “Revenge,” and “Jane the Virgin” and has dedicated his past two years in LA to television, theater has always been something special; nothing compares to a live audience watching you. In New York, old friends from Stuyvesant have periodic mini-reunions. Young’s experience attests to Stuyvesant’s valuable theater community and general community as a whole.

He feels lucky to have been cast in “Cardinal”—he’s done lots of off-off-Broadway theater, but Tony Kiser is the largest stage he’s ever performed on. The dynamic between actor and audience is what makes it as enjoyable an experience. He pointed out that he likes when a younger audience connects with the “millennial things,” from mannerisms like swiping his phone to the play’s bold female protagonist. “There aren’t full answers in the play, but presenting all these issues and letting you decide, that’s something younger audiences are excited to do,” Young said.

His words of advice to Stuyvesant students: do it for the process, not for the result. It’s great to want to be the best, but it’s good to be invested in theater because you appreciate the process of reaching there, including the long hours, endless auditions, and a smaller paycheck. Whatever you do, do it fully. Lastly, watch theater! New York is the place to be to learn from icons.