Theatre in Review: Outside People (Vineyard/Naked Angels)

	Nelson Lee and Matt Dellapina

If nothing else, this season has given us a new dramatic genre: the East-West culture clash comedy. Outside People will inevitably be compared to David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, and for good reason. Both plays feature an American trying to get by in modern China without grasping the social mores beneath the country's heavily Westernized veneer. And each puts its leading man in an ambiguous affair with a Chinese woman. (Matt Dellapina, who stars in Outside People, bears a superficial resemblance to Chinglish's Gary Wilmes.) The plays are far from identical, however. Chinglish is essentially a high comedy about an international business intrigue; Outside People is a more melancholy tale about displacement, loneliness, and love. In Chinglish, the characters' doomed attempts at communication are uproarious; in Outside People, they lead to an emotionally wrenching outcome.

In Zayd Dohrn's script, the term "outside people" can refer to foreigners, provincials let loose in the big city, and long-term residents who remain perplexed by the subterranean complexities of Chinese society. First among them is Malcolm, a woebegone slacker from Brooklyn -- his video documentary on sustainable farming has been a bust -- who ends up in Beijing at the behest of David, his Chinese roommate from Stamford. It's a classic odd-couple pairing: Malcolm is a super-sensitive, cripplingly self-conscious mass of anxieties; David is a super-slick businessman -- he wears Armani suits like a second skin -- who enjoys making the Beijing club scene with his stylish girlfriend, Samanya, the daughter of Cameroon's ambassador to China.

David adds Malcolm to the staff of his employment agency, largely because having a Western face on board adds prestige to the operation. He also sets Malcolm up with the stunning Xiao Mei, who has been hired to provide him with language lessons, plus a few extras on the side. Back at his hotel room, in a scene notable for its delicate humor, Malcolm tries, with his limited Chinese vocabulary, to clue in Xiao Mei about his (dormant) herpes infection -- without ruining the romantic mood. The resulting deadlock is broken by David, via phone, and they fall happily into bed.

Except, as it turns out, David lied to both Malcolm and Xiao Mei, the discovery of which leaves Malcolm feeling rather unsettled -- a feeling that proves to be a preview of things to come. As Malcolm, for whom earnestness is a kind of chronic illness, falls hard for Xiao Mei, you can practically see his soul relax; it's as if, in a strange country, he has found the home that has eluded him all his life. At the same time, his relationship with the pretty, practical, and surprisingly poker-faced Xiao Mei -- the daughter of a poor, rural family, making her way alone in the big city -- remains riddled with ambiguities and unexplained silences, all of which hint at disillusionments to come. When Malcolm announces he wants to take her back to the US, the issue of getting Xiao Mei a visa unleashes a chain of events that can only end in heartbreak.

Outside People is a lean, fast-moving piece, and at times, you might wish that Dohrn had taken a bit more time, detailing his characters a little more fully. Even with Dohrn's plentiful explanations, the Malcolm-David friendship is a little hard to credit -- what do they see in each other? -- and it's not fully believable that Malcolm would accept his do-nothing position in David's company for even a few weeks, even if he is addled by his infatuation with Xiao Mei. Nevertheless, the author has a keen eye for both sides of a complex situation. Outside People ends with Malcolm feeling duped and betrayed, but, as Dohrn makes clear, when it comes to honesty, Malcolm may very well be his own worst enemy. As he pursues Xiao Mei, warning signs are visible everywhere; he's just too self-absorbed to notice them.

That we continue to care about these not-terribly-lovable people is thanks to Dohrn's skillful writing and also to the efforts of a remarkably fine cast, under the highly observant direction of Evan Cabnet. Dellapina gives Malcolm a real charm and vulnerability that offsets his nerdier, more naïve qualities; he also has a real chemistry with Li Jun Li, whose Xiao Mei is all the more fascinating for what she doesn't say about herself. Nelson Lee's David is a genial monster, dispensing his curdled wisdom with a smile and a pat on the back. (Delivering an amusing mixed message, David notes that Western men get an automatic attractiveness boost in Asia; Malcolm, he notes, is a 5 in the US, but a definite 7 in Beijing.) Sonequa Martin-Green is an attractive presence as Samanya, who tries to aid the Malcolm-Xiao Mei romance, only to sabotage her relationship with David. As Samanya learns, even a lifetime spent in China isn't enough to make her a native.

Adding to the production is Takeshi Kata's stunning set design, a riot of neon strips, red lanterns, and color-changing lightbulbs set into a silver oriental grille; the deft lighting -- especially the pulsating, colorful scene changes -- is by Ben Stanton. Jessica Wegener Shay's costumes provide intriguing clues to each character and his or her social role. Jill BC Du Boff's sound design blends various types of Chinese pop music with the noise of disco crowds, the rumble of street life, and fireworks exploding in the distance.

A hundred years ago, playwrights and novelists sent their protagonists to Europe to get bitter lessons in sophistications they could previously only guess at. Now they're being dispatched to China for such worldly instruction. From a marketing point of view, it's probably a little unfortunate that Outside People opened so soon after Chinglish, but, as China exerts an ever more dominant role in the world, you can expect more dramatic portraits of Americans abroad. In any case, Outside People makes for a fine introduction to a new dramatic voice.--David Barbour