May 14, 2008
By Jonathan Abarbanel
Theater Editor

A middle-aged man loses his job after more than 20 years. His oldest son is a slacker seemingly destined to fail; his younger son is driven to success that doesn't fulfill him. The father's pursuit of the American Dream—especially for his sons—remains unrealized. The parallels to Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman are striking, but Durango is set in 21st-century America, where Korean immigrant Boo-Seng Lee is the father of Isaac, 21, and Jimmy, 15.

Almost elegantly simple in presentation—an automobile journey of intimate scenes, none involving more than three characters—Durango is difficult to assess in part because it's really three plays: There's a play about the newly-unemployed father, a play about traditional Asian family values and, last but not least, a play about the closeted sexual identities of both the father and Jimmy, a high-school swimming champ terrified of being “a faggot.”

Any one of these plays would make a full evening. Author Julia Cho's three-in-one combo almost inevitably means that not all three receive equal attention. The precipitating incident—Boo-Seng's unemployment—never is addressed or resolved. His future as a father and man remains a question mark at play's end. Cho also sets up a major audience expectation that father and son will come out to each other, but they never do.

What remains and receives the most attention is the play about family values, parental expectations and the traditional immigrant drive to succeed. It trumps everything, and ends with both sons recommitting themselves to living out lies, pursuing personal goals they detest but which honor their father's expectations. Jimmy in particular slams the closet door he's hardly opened, a door he cannot possibly keep shut. The implosion of the Lee family is postponed but not avoided, and the audience knows it. What would the boys do if they knew the lie their father had been living for 25 years? Cho doesn't go there, opting instead for a socially regressive denouement.

Such regressiveness is acceptable only because the characters—even the taciturn and aloof but explosive Boo-Seng—are truthfully written and exceptionally well performed by Joseph Anthony Foronda ( Boo-Seng ) , Dawen Wang ( Isaac ) and Erik Kaiko ( Jimmy ) . Foronda in particular—using subtext and precise physical work—moves beyond Boo-Seng's stereotyped imperfect English and emotional repression. Director Carlos Murillo delves deep and balances the play's early humor with respect for its dominant mournful tone. He and designers Marianna Csaszar ( scenic ) and Rebecca A. Barrett ( lighting ) have crafted a seemingly primitive box set that's full of theatrical surprises and painterly beauties.

Will the unhappiness of the father be visited upon the sons? Durango answers in the affirmative. It doesn't make a joyous night out, but it makes a good night out—a compelling night out nonetheless.