You don’t have to be a Vietnamese food fan to fall for Dustin H. Chinn’s culture clash comedy Colonialism is Terrible, But Phở is Delicious, now getting a tangy World Premiere production at Anaheim Hills’ Chance Theater.

Spanning two continents and two centuries, Chinn’s play transports us from French Indochina circa 1889 to Hồ Chí Minh City a year before Y2K to contemporary NYC as a dozen distinct characters deliver a crash course in the Vietnamese beef-and-noodle soup known as phở.

First up in late-19th-century Hà Nội are Madame Gagnier (Chloé Gay Brewer) and her chef personnel Guillaume (Casey Long), the latter of whose imminent return to his homeland is about to leave the French colonial noblewoman in dire need of haute cuisine unless she can find someone to take his place tout de suite.

Enter Thúy (Hannah Mariah), recommended to Madame by her steward Nguyên (Dustin Vuong Nguyen) as a possible replacement provided Guillaume can teach her how to prepare his employer’s beloved pot au feu, a task more easily said than done considering Thúy’s total disdain for all things French.

We next fast-forward to 1999 Hà Nội and the phở cart run by street vendor Mùi (Mariah again), visited today by National Administration for Tourism employee Quang (Nguyen) and a couple of American tourists (Long and Brewer as Hugh and Rose) about to be introduced to Vietnam’s signature dish, that is if the foreigners can overcome their aversion to anything not as all-American as Burger King or KFC.

Finally, playwright Chinn escorts us to modern-day Brooklyn, where Cordon Bleu-trained chef Chris (Long) has perfected his own personal take on phở, one so painstakingly seasoned that it must be savored (at $45 a bowl) precisely as he’s prepared it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the chef’s insistence that one taste fits all does not sit well with his latest customer, Vietnamese-American Danielle (Mariah), who finds it nothing less than outrageous that the chef refuses to allow her to add even a dollop of hoisin sauce, a stalemate that leaves her food blogger friend Julie (Brewer) and waiter/manager Sam (Nguyen) caught right in the middle and the pricey phở on the table chilling even as they bicker.

If it’s not already clear, Colonialism is Terrible, But Phở is Delicious provides three very different East-meet-West scenarios each as tasty as the one before, and educational too, at least for those unfamiliar with phở, a dish designed to be seasoned to each individual diner’s tastes, not simply to chef Chris’s one-taste-fits-all specifications.

Chinn’s play is also hilarious as all get-out, earning laughs galore not just from its quirky characters and clever script but from the first two scenes’ central conceit: fluent Vietnamese is rendered as unaccented American English while French sounds like English with an accent français so thick you could cut it with a couteau, and English as if it were Beverly Hillbillies doin’ the talkin’.

Chinn’s three-part script means three particularly meaty roles for four cast members to sink their teeth into, and Brewer, Mariah, Nguyen, and an especially on-fire Long could not be more triply delish than they are under Oánh Nguyễn’s pitch-perfect direction.

Scenic designer Avery Tăng’s Vietnam map-backed set gives Colonialsm/Phở an picturesquely Asian motif, a design enhanced in Part 2 by an upstage wall filled with brightly colored Vietnamese-language signs and in Part 3 by flame-red lanterns suspended from the ceiling, just one of lighting designer Kara Ramlow’s many creative contributions.

Costume designer Maggie Whitaker earns major snaps for three very different sets of outfits, from late-19th-century French finery to 1999 American tourist wear to 2023 Brooklyn chic, and sound designer James Ard adds atmospheric touches throughout.

Last but not least, dialect coach Glenda Morgan Brown has the play’s French and American characters speaking in accents so dilectibly over the top, they could be reading the phone book and we’d still be in stitches.

Shinshin Yuder Tsai is assistant director. Zoe Ng is assistant scenic designer. Jamie Gallagher is assistant costume designer. Natalia Duong is dramaturg. Jordan Jones is stage manager.

Whether or not you find phở to your liking, I can pretty much guarantee that Colonialism is Terrible, But Phở is Delicious will hit the spot. And who knows. Chance Theater’s latest just might have you hankering for a bowlful after the show!

Chance Theater, 5522 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills.
www.chancetheater.com

–Steven Stanley
April 8, 2023
Photos: Doug Catiller, True Image Studio

Tags: Chance Theater, Dustin H. Chinn, Orange County Theater Review