![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sun-Mee-4.jpg\")
Sun Mee Chomet was adopted by a Protestant mother and Jewish father and only had the resources to seek out her birth parents as an adult in her late thirties. After having claimed to have exhausted alternative methods of finding her birth parents, Chomet\u2019s adoption agency caseworker suggests that Chomet try a particularly gauche Korean reality TV show that helps adoptees find their birth parents. Reluctantly, Chomet agrees, fueled by her last shred of hope to submit to manifold indignities along the way. Following numerous trials involving tasteless show executives, Chomet reunites with her birth mother.<\/p>\n
But the reunion is not completely joyful. Chomet\u2019s birth mother\u2019s current husband is abusive, and his learning about her child born out of wedlock \u2014 at age 19, no less \u2014 would result in her \u201closing everything, including contact with her two sons.\u201d Chomet is kept a secret, and her reunion with her mother after all those decades is tainted by the covertness of their interactions. After overcoming the odds to find her birth parents, Chomet\u2019s experience meeting her mother is fraught with fear of her current husband finding out, shame from an element of her identity out of her control, and dashed hopes of starting anew with a birth family that would embrace her unconditionally.<\/p>\n
Both the first and second halves of the show \u2014 searching for and finding Chomet\u2019s birth mother, and the aftermath of secret outings with her mother, aunts, and grandmothers to visit malls, relatives’ graves, secret bars, adoptee reunions, and more \u2014 focus on the coarse reality of being an adoptee, but address this question with arguably opposite storytelling structures. The first half, by the nature of its lost-to-found narrative, has a tightly written exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution.<\/p>\n
The second half of the show is less tightly written, with less clear direction \u2014 even if that structure corresponds with Chomet\u2019s lived experience going from brief experience to brief experience, each of which raised enormous and narratively significant new questions for her to grapple with.<\/p>\n
Chomet\u2019s quest for unconditional love in a world fixed against you is the overarching narrative of the show: the general relevance of the anecdotes in the second half to that narrative should be enough to make the show\u2019s latter part structurally satisfying, but it doesn\u2019t quite hit the mark.<\/p>\n In the first half of this show, Chomet shares little about her plans for what to do after she finds her mother \u2014 which is of course incredibly realistic. But because no mention of these plans is included in the first act, the one narrative thread we want to see tied up in this section is for her to find her birth parents, which she does. Thus, like Chomet, we almost forget to wonder about what she should or could do once they are found: she even acknowledges that upon finding her birth mother, she \u201clost motivation.\u201d She had been single-mindedly working to find her mother for so long \u2014 she wasn\u2019t sure it would even happen, and once she found her mother, she found herself unsure of how to proceed, overwhelmed and confused by all that was happening to her.<\/p>\n But I couldn\u2019t escape the feeling that more could have been done to structure the second act in a way that didn\u2019t feel so fundamentally different from the narratively captivating first act. The first act has set us up to anticipate another immersive and tightly written rising action and climax. It is likely that the second act\u2019s structure would not stick out as being so different and comparatively unsatisfying as it is if the first act were not so tightly wound around traveling from point A to point B.<\/p>\n But crucially: no real-life story fits into a story structure. We should not give Joseph Campbell that kind of power over our lives. As I developed this reaction to this show, I felt uneasy \u2014 is it appropriate to say that experiences should be adjusted in their retelling to suit conventional story structure? Especially when using conventional and then unconventional structure more accurately matches Chomet\u2019s real-life experience? I found myself thinking that it would even help the show if the second half\u2019s narrative chaos were addressed \u2014 but even suggesting this feels like asking for Chomet\u2019s baring of her soul around the greatest challenges of her life to be properly plated and garnished with a maraschino cherry for easier consumption by audiences.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, who are we to tell Chomet to change the way that she expresses her life story, especially one as heartbreaking and harrowing as this one? And I am not an adoptee, and I\u2019m a quarter-Vietnamese, not Korean or culturally Asian. I am not meant to identify with the intricacies of these experiences. An adoptee of any race would likely feel deeply seen by the depiction of narrative variance on stage in the second half. Still, I can\u2019t help but feel that the show would not lose any impact on those who share in Chomet\u2019s experiences if the second half were organized around fewer ideas, and led to a second rising action and climax.<\/p>\n This show is affecting regardless of your background or experiences: don\u2019t we all search for unconditional love? Chomet\u2019s description of this quest as it has taken form in her life may put some of the deepest questions on your own heart into words.<\/p>\n Running Time: 85 minutes with no intermission.<\/p>\n How to Be a Korean Woman<\/strong><\/em><\/a> plays through September 22, 2024, presented by Theater J<\/a>\u00a0at the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater in the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, 1529 16th\u00a0Street NW, Washington, DC. Purchase tickets ($50\u2013$70, with member and military discounts available)\u00a0online,<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by calling the ticket office at 202-777-3210, or by email (theaterj@theaterj.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n To read the program online, click here.<\/a> COVID Safety: <\/strong>Masks optional.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO:<\/b> Sun Mee Chomet’s solo show encompasses stream-of-consciousness, personal and emotional thinking, and organized storytelling. She is a joy to watch. By ALEXANDRA BOWMAN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":359284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[862],"class_list":{"0":"post-359274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews","8":"tag-sun-mee-chomet"},"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sun-Mee-2.jpg\")
\nTo read the Audience Guide, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Suddenly, I didn\u2019t know who I was,\u2019 says Sun Mee Chomet as her hit ‘How to Be a Korean Woman’ returns to Theater J <\/b><\/span><\/a>(interview by Ravelle Brickman, September 3, 2024)
\nA daughter aches to connect with her birth mother, in \u2018How to Be a Korean Woman’ at Theater J <\/b><\/a><\/span>(review of the previous run by Lisa Traiger, January 8, 2024)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"