Twisting Fortunes: new Asian Canadian romantic comedy play written by Charlie Cho and Grace Chin
Playwrights Charlie Cho and Grace Chin are bringing their new play to Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year Dinner. It's about dating in Vancouver… with an Asian twist. I thought this would be perfect to introduce to our Gung Haggis audience. Charlie and Grace are friends who have supported GHFC for many years. Charlie was at our first dinners back in 2000 and 2001, and even ate haggis for a radio interview helping to promote GHFC, in his role as lead editor for the Rice Paper Magazine collective, which Grace has also helped to edit in years past.
Together with Kathy Leung (an ex-paddler with the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team), Grace co-hosts the Scripting Aloud play-writing and performance workshop on Monday nights. Kathy directs this first play to emerge from the workshops written by Grace and Charlie. Grace and Zen Shane Lim act. Zen is known for his lead roles in the Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre productions of “Sex in Vancouver,” as well as his television and movie credits. I have known all 4 creative people for a number of years and it is great to see them all expand their creativity and excel.
I think this will be a great addition to Gung Haggis Fat Choy. Charlie promises it will be witty, romantic, and punchy… We think Robbie Burns would enjoy it!
A New Twist on Love in the City
Vancouver, BC – Wind it up for a bittersweet, frothy mix of romance and sexual tension this winter with Twisting Fortunes, a made-in-Vancouver play set to the buzz of Terminal City's café culture.
TF is written by Charlie Cho (Hot Sauce Posse, Ricepaper magazine) and Grace Chin (Scripting Aloud co-producer), and is directed by Kathy Leung (writer of the Leo-nominated Lily's Crickets, Scripting Aloud co-producer), with sponsorship support from Scripting Aloud and Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (VACT).
Reminiscent of the Richard Linklater film Before Sunrise, Ray Chow and Jessy Leung exchange coffee, tea and repartee against a video montage of familiar Vancouver venues in TF's intimate look at personal, sexual and racial politics on the multicultural Left Coast. A radio reporter and simultaneous non-dater, Ray is tired of the game. An aspiring actor and serial monogamist, Jessy still hasn't found what she's looking for. They both want out – or do they want in?
Zen Shane Lim, the male lead in VACT's popular Sex in Vancouver theatre episodic based on the successful American Sex in Seattle series, headlines this two-act play about an accidentally Asian pair who find it easy enough to fall in like, then find their relationship anything but. Chin, an actor herself, takes on the female lead.
TF is the first theatrical production to emerge from Scripting Aloud, a monthly pan-Asian Canadian scriptreading series active since 2005.
Twisting Fortunes plays February 6, 7, 8, 9 at 8 p.m . at the Playwrights Theatre Centre (1398 Cartwright Street) on Granville Island. Tickets $10 at the door, $11 online via PayPal.
Media enquiries:
Charlie Cho
co-writer, Twisting Fortunes
co-producer, TF Productions
778-288-5933