Twisting Fortunes - an accidentally Asian comedy play opens this week


Jan. 28: Zen Shane Lim and Grace Chin had a captivated audience of almost 400 laughing with the reading of a scene from the play at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner - photo Tim Pawsey

Twisting Fortunes was one of the special surprises at the 2007 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner on January 28.  I have known the playwrights Charlie Cho and Grace Chin for a number of years through our mutual connections with Ricepaper Magazine - where both have been editors.

GHFC always tries to highlight Asian Canadian literary and arts, and the TF press release looked like something exciting and fun.  Charlie Cho sent me an excerpt that was witty, sharp and punchy, and still made social commentary about Asian-Canadian culture.

Presto - actors Grace Chin and Zen Shane Lim were booked to perform at GHFC, and we snagged Charlie Cho to become our stage manager.  Charlie and Grace have attended GHFC dinners in the past, and Charlie even came to our 3rd public dinner back in 2001 when we were serving only 100 people at the New Grandview Szechwan Restaurant.

UBC associate professor Henry Yu invited Charlie Cho, Grace Chin and Zen Shane Lim to discuss Asian dating in Vancouver with his fourth-year history class: Asian Migrant Communities in Vancouver.

"After seeing a scene from TF performed at Gung Haggis Fat Choy, I immediately asked the cast to come to my class at UBC to talk to the students. The play addresses some of the pressing issues concerning Asian Canadian youth, but with a light hearted touch that engages and provokes at the same time as it makes you laugh. The students really enjoyed it." - Henry Yu


Charlie Cho, Jim Wong-Chu, Grace Chin sing Auld Lang Syne at the 2005 Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner - photo Ray Shum.

Below is information from the Twisting Fortunes website - which includes

News/Audio

Feb. 6: Grace Chin and Charlie Cho were interviewed by Rick Cluff on The Early Editon on CBC Radio, 690 AM in Vancouver. With an excerpt featuring Zen Shane Lim. [Listen 6:24]

Feb. 4: Kathy Leung and Zen Shane Lim's interview with Sheryl Mackay about Scripting Aloud and Twisting Fortunes on North By Northwest aired on CBC Radio in British Columbia. [Listen 9:53]

Feb. 2: Grace Chin and Charlie Cho were interviewed by Joyce Lam and Grace Kim on Wake Up with Co-op on CFRO 102.7 FM. With an excerpt featuring Zen Shane Lim. [Listen 19:42]

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 and photo 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 c
twistingfortunes@gmail.com