Yee - Carried away on the crest of a wave

Yet, true to our times, even a catastrophe of this magnitude has receded from our memories, at least in North America, crowded out by a decade of more recent newsfeed items. David Yee, however, refuses to let the many lives altered and destroyed drift into the recesses of our self-involved culture. An actor and playwright of Chinese and Scottish descent, born and raised in Toronto, Yee serves as the co-founding artistic director of fu-GEN, Canadas only professional Asian Canadian theatre company. He therefore stands at the forefront of a rich and blossoming genre, whose origins many trace to Canadian R.A. Shiomis 1982 play Yellow Fever, which became a hit off-Broadway in New York and around the world. In 2010, Yee made a stunning playwriting debut with his full-length play lady in the red dress.

Showcasing his exuberant theatricality and subversive intelligence, Yee mashed surrealism with mystery and genre elements to explore Canadas anti-Asian racist history, as well as the present-day denial of that past. lady was shortlisted for Canadas Governor Generals Literary Award, marking the arrival of a major new theatrical voice. carried away on the crest of a wave proves a brilliant follow-up to lady, demonstrating Yees literary versatility, as well as his innate humanism and spirituality. A firm believer in the importance of research, he prepared by meticulously digesting everything he could find on topics such as earthquakes, fault lines, and the disaster itself. True of the best authors, however, Yee never shows his homework. In fact, the actual catastrophe itself is never depicted, but instead becomes the impetus for Yee to explore its impact on the lives and souls forever changed by its fury.

These spirits are an eclectic bunch, spread around the globe: a Muslim engineer and a Catholic priest, two Japanese men falling down a seemingly endless hole, a radio shock jock in Toronto, a seismologist who blames himself for the Tsunami deaths, two brothers swept out to sea; a single natural disaster, rippling outward from its source, eventually reaching these disparate individuals, binding them into an unexpected community. David Yees wave therefore carries us to a wonderfully surprising place, where we glimpse the interconnectedness of all humanity. Perhaps his own vantage point, as a Western author of mixed-race Asian ancestry, gives him a unique perspective with which to appreciate a tragedy whose victims were overwhelmingly Asian. In any case, as a young author, Yee knows all too well how our screens and media hold sway over contemporary lives. Yet for that very reason, he continues to believe in the critical place of theatre and live performance in todays culture. In carried away on the crest of a wave, David Yee demonstrates the power of art to succeed where the facts and footage of our twenty-four hour news cycle often fail: to make palpable a human tragedy, mark its stories indelibly upon our memories, and bind us together as citizens of the world.

David Henry Hwang Brooklyn, NY, 2014 carried away on the crest of a wave was first produced by Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, between April 24 and May 26, 2013. It featured the following cast and creative team: