Chalk Repertory Theatre returns with its first fully-staged production since 2018’s Death And Cockroaches, an absolutely superb World Premiere staging of David Johann Kim’s mesmerizing Pang Spa.

The year is 2002, 50 years since Korean-born Tae Pang (Hahn Cho) met his then U.S. Army nurse wife Avy (Christopher Callen) during the Korean War and 20 years since Tae and Avy saw their three liquor/convenience stores burned to the ground during the L.A. riots.

Now in their eighties, Tae and Avy are both living with Alzheimer’s in the rundown Koreatown apartment building they have owned for decades, though on paper ownership has been transferred to U.S.-born Japanese-American octogenarian tenant Mariko Weiss (Dian Kobayashi), a ruse that allows the elderly Pangs to get government-provided services like doctors and treatment, along with full-time employment for their 48-year-old son Daniel (Ben Carroll) as the couple’s live-in home health care worker.

It’s a duty Daniel has fulfilled these past several years with endless patience, the result not just of filial devotion but of guilt over the suicide death of his older brother David, who helped his parents run their three stores until the 1992 riots robbed them of their livelihood and eventually drove David to take his own life.

Enter 20-year-old Dora (Jasmine Kimiko), on leave from the U.S. Army while awaiting word as to whether she will be allowed to return to active duty in Afghanistan or be given an O.T.H. (Other than Honorable Discharge) for having punched her commanding officer in the face when (in Dora’s words) “he tried to make me go down on him.”

As to whether Dora’s arrival is simply a response to Mrs. Weiss’s Craigslist ad for a lodger or something not quite so coincidental, well for that you’ll have to head on over to the Atwater Village Theatre for this most remarkable of new plays, one that reminded me at times of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, which is just about the highest compliment I can pay it.

 Like Joe and Kate Keller before them, Tae and Avy Pang have lost their most beloved older child. Like Chris Keller before him, Daniel, always second in his parents’ affection, finds himself torn between family loyalty and a desire to escape. And if All My Sons’ Ann Deaver ended up having a life-changing effect on the Kellers, the same may hold true for Dora and the Pangs.

Playwright Kim takes his deliberate time in revealing his characters’ back stories, carefully measured pacing never more effective than in the extended two-character scene that ends Pang Spa’s first act, impeccably directed by Reena Dutt and performed to heartrending perfection by Carroll and Kimiko.

Not only is Pang Spa a compelling family drama, its diverse cast of characters demonstrates just how multicultural the Asian-American community is, from Korean-born, longtime Los Angeles resident Tae to 30ish recent Chinese immigrant Yong (Edward Hong) to Japanese-American “Noo Yawker” Mrs. Weiss to half-Korean, half-Caucasian Daniel to perhaps even the ethnically ambiguous Dora.

In addition, Pang Spa reveals how seeing one’s family business looted and burned by previously loyal customers can continue to devastate decades later.

The performances Dutt has elicited could not be more memorable, from Carroll’s dynamic, guilt-racked Daniel to Cho’s still fierce and feisty Tae to Callen’s gentle, loving Avy to Kobayashi’s shut-your-eyes-and-she’s-Linda-Richman Mrs. Weiss to Hong’s always engaging Yong, and Kimiko makes the most dazzling of L.A. theater debuts as the outwardly confident but achingly vulnerable Dora.

Scenic designer Justin Huen’s dingy apartment complex set places the audience smack dab in the middle of its central courtyard, with Xinyuan Li’s nuanced lighting, Maria Hong’s just-right costumes, Dana Schwartz’s diverse array of props, and Austin Quan’s evocative sound design meriting individual kudos of their own as do Rachel Lee Flesher and Zachariah Payne’s for their intimacy and fight direction.

Pang Spa is produced by Chalk Repertory Theatre artistic producing director Amy Ellenberger and Michaela Bulkley. Huen is technical director. Roella Dellosa is production stage manager and Giann Bello is assistant stage manager. Susan Gordon is publicist.

David Johann Kim describes Pang Spa as “a place where despite dementia, depression, suicides and the violation and violence of the ’92 LA Riots, healing can, at least, begin.”

I couldn’t find better words myself to describe Chalk Repertory Theatre’s emotionally-charged, deeply touching return to the Los Angeles theater scene.

ADDENDUM: David Johann Kim’s Two Stop, running next door to Pang Spa, takes a more immediate look at the day it all exploded, and does so to absolutely riveting effect. Both World Premieres are not to be missed.

Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village.
www.chalkrep.com

–Steven Stanley
May 19, 2024
Photos: Diana Toshiko

Tags: Chalk Repertory Theatre, David Johann Kim, Los Angeles Theater Review