Poor Yella Rednecks highlights voices of Vietnamese Americans

Titi Mary Tran/ Nguoi-Viet English

COSTA MESA, Calif. (NV) – “Poor Yella Rednecks,” which runs through April 27 at Orange County’s South Coast Repertory, tells the story of the Vietnamese refugee experience – with a twist.

Written by Qui Nguyen and directed by May Adrales, the play moves the audience through a whole range of emotion: anger, frustration, humor, desperation, vulnerability, nativity, lust, love — and a whole lot of F-bombs. All done with a background of moving images and rap songs.

The play depicts the life of Tong, a Vietnamese refugee woman, in small-town Arkansas. During a drunken moment in a pickup truck, Tong accepts a marriage proposal done in rap to a 1970s song from Quang, an ex-captain of the South Vietnam Air Force, who already has a wife and two kids back home in Vietnam.

Sold on an idea of home, Tong says yes.

As the story moves on, Tong hangs on to a waitress job at a diner while Quang works as a house cleaner and repairman. Life continues harmoniously for the family of four: Tong, Quang, their 6-year-old son and Tong’s mother. That is until they receive a letter from Quang’s ex-wife, which turns their lives and their finances upside down.

According to Arkansas family law, their marriage must be annulled. The local enforcement officer who stamps their marriage certificate as annulled explains it this way: Even in the land of Burger King, where cheeseburgers are plentiful, there can’t be two burgers or several burgers at the same time. The rock of their relationship now becomes a darkly murky liquid of the unknown.

Qui Nguyen craftily carries the perspectives of first-generation Vietnamese America through the voice of their children: the second generation In the play, the Vietnamese characters rap perfect “redneck” English and the white characters speak the way the Vietnamese refugees understand.

To express the complexity of a whole refugee emotion and experience in a short time on stage for a mostly white audience at the South Coast Repertory — and for them to understand, that takes skill.

Nguyen says “Poor Yella Rednecks” is based on personal experience.

“It’s about my family,” he tells the South Coast Repertory website. “It’s about two people who are very much in love here in America, but also haunted by the ghosts of who they were in Vietnam. And as the title suggests, it’s about living in poverty in the deep South as Asian immigrants. That’s the heartbeat of the play, which I’m aware sounds heavy.”

But it also has fun moments.

And Adrales says the play shows parents dedicated to making a life for their child and having just a bit of happiness for themselves – a message she tells South Coast Rep is needed.

“In a time where immigrants are criminalized and cruelly punished for fleeing violence and war, ‘Poor Yella Rednecks’ ushers in a much-needed reminder of shared humanity,” she says. “I believe everyone will find they have more in common with the Nguyen family than differences. And, along the way, you’ll laugh at some off-color jokes, cry a little and open your hearts a bit more.”

The message is conveyed movingly through the performance of Maureen Sebastian (Tong) and Samantha Quan (Grandma).

But both prevail and sacrifice in the face of hardship, especially when it comes to their little man, Tong’s son, who is bullied by his peers and ignore by his teacher due to his lack of English proficiency.

Perhaps Tong and her mother are both fighting for their American dreams, each in her own way.

The message also resonated with its younger Vietnamese audience who were born in the United States.

“I feel so spoiled,” said Andy Huynh, a 19-year-old freshman at UC Irvine after the play. He has heard stories about his grandparents that are similar to that of Tong’s experiences.

If you go:

‘Poor Yella Rednecks’

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Calif.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets: Start at $20. Students: Use the code PYRSTU for $10 tickets.

Info: (714) 708-5555 or scr.org

Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes