How often have we taken the ferry to or around Angel Island and considered what a dire destination it was for emigrants from China?
This theme and others are explored in Lauren Yee’s “King of the Yees,” headlined by Obie and Lucille Lortel Award-winning actor and San Francisco native Francis Jue.
The play, centered on San Francisco’s Chinatown, was inspired by Yee’s family and their deep connections within the community.
Joshua Kahan Brody directed the San Francisco Playhouse production.
For nearly 20 years, playwright Lauren Yee’s father Larry (played by Francis Jue) has been a driving force in the Yee Family Association, a seemingly obsolescent Chinese American men’s club formed 150 years ago in the wake of the Gold Rush.
But when her father goes missing, Lauren (played by Krystle Piamonte) must plunge into the rabbit hole of San Francisco’s Chinatown and confront a world both foreign and familiar. At once bitingly hilarious and heartbreakingly honest, King of the Yees is an epic joyride across cultural, national, and familial borders that explores what it truly means to be a Yee.