The Headlands

B

The folks at LCT3 are doing playwright Christopher Chen (Caught) a disservice by describing his likable new play as “contemporary noir.” While the setting is San Francisco and there is an unexplained death to be solved, the play does not really recall the world of classic noir films. Our amiable but unreliable narrator is Henry (Aaron Yoo; Where Do We Live?), a 30-ish Chinese-American Google engineer who, with the assistance of his girlfriend Jess (Mahira Kakkar; Miss Witherspoon), enjoys trying to solve cold cases. He often breaks the fourth wall to address the audience. The case he is currently investigating is about the shooting of a man ten years prior. While it was called a home burglary gone awry, there are some loose ends that suggest otherwise. We soon learn that the man shot was Henry’s father. Henry’s investigation leads him to discover a series of increasingly upsetting family secrets that call into question almost everything he thought he knew about his family. Along the way, his increasing obsession with solving the mystery alienates his girlfriend. The story is told mainly in flashback and makes heavy use of projections to set the scene. The unreliability of memory is a recurring theme. Bits and pieces of Henry’s memories change their significance with each discovery. Laura Kai Chen (Dan Cody’s Yacht) and Johnny Wu (Chinglish) are effective as Henry’s parents. Mia Katigbak (Awake and Sing) plays an older version of Henry’s mother as well as her no-nonsense best friend. Henry Stram (JUNK, Network) doubles as Henry’s father’s business partner Walter and as the detective who investigated the crime. Edward Chin-Lyn (Veil Window Conspiracy) is Tom, whose connection I shall not reveal. The set by Kimie Nishikawa (The Light) is a virtually bare gray space that is often covered with Ruey Horng Sun’s (King Kong) projected photographs and film clips. Tilly Grimes’s (Underground Railroad Game) costumes are apt. Knud Adams (Paris) direction is fluid. It’s an intriguing story which one wishes went a little deeper. The subplot about Henry’s relationship with his girlfriend is a definite weak spot. Nevertheless, I thought the play showed promise and was worth seeing. Also, it was good to see Asian-American actors have an opportunity. Running time: 90 minutes; no intermission.