Live and in person at the Tarragon Extra Space, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Red Snow Collective. Playing until March 23, 2025.
Playwright, Diana Tso
Director/choreographer, William Yong
Composer Alice Ping Yee Ho
Lighting designed by Andre du Toit
Scenic and costume designer, Ting-Huan, Christine Urquhart
Cast: Shiong-En Chan
Tai Wei Foo
Brenda Kamino
Honey Pham
Michelle Wang
With Carried By The River playwright Diana Tso has written a play honouring absent mothers, myths, memories, cultural traditions and finding the truth about one’s identity.
Kai is a young Asian woman raised in Canada. She is grieving her late mother as she goes through her papers. Kai is startled to realize that she was adopted from China, when there was the “One-Child Policy” in China, when a family in China could only have one child. If they had more, then the child had to be put up for adoption or other drastic options. Kai felt she had to go to China to find her routes. Kai is ‘guided’ by the spirit of her late mother. She is also ‘visited’ by mythic animals that carry their own wisdom in guiding her: a deer, a tiger, a bear. The metaphor of the river as another guide is a thread through this poetic play.
When Kai lands in China she meets a friendly, chatty street vendor named Ting Ting who very quickly suggests they go into business together. The two young women bond and as they traded information about themselves, Kai reveals she is gay. Ting Ting is horrified because to reveal one is gay in China is dangerous—being gay is not accepted. Ting Ting proves a good friend and Kai is invited to meet Ting Ting’s family. We also learn that Ting Ting’s mother had to put a child up for adoption years ago, because of the “One-Child Policy.”
It seemed to me, and I’m sure I’m not alone, that Kai would naturally pursue this bit of information by trying to see if her adoption from China might have something to do with Ting Ting’s mother having to give up a child for adoption, but playwright, Diana Tso does not pursue that, which I found odd. It’s clear later in the play, why this was not questioned, but I feel another pass around this issue is needed to stop the audience from thinking there was something wrong with not pursuing it earlier. While the play is very poetic, I think it would be stronger with judicious editing to make the work flow easier.
William Yong is both the director and the choreographer. He certainly has a vivid imagistic sense. The production is stunning, with swaths of material as a backdrop and stunning costumes for the animals (kudos to Ting-Huan and Christine Urquhart), but often I sensed that William Yong’s concept and images for the production overpowered the play. At the beginning there is a tableau of three people in silhouette who do a dance. We have no idea what this signifies since the play has not started. This might tend to confuse the audience. Not a good thing to start. We do get a sense what it means at the end when we can put that dance in context. The dance would work better if placed at the end, as a kind of closure, rather than at the beginning as confusion.
At the beginning Kai is talking to her iPad as if writing a letter to her mother. She sits stage right. Willam Yong has a video of Kai reading from her iPad projected on one of the stage left panels of material. Why? It seems fussy and unnecessary. William Yong has also created a lot of dance sequences, all lovely and vivid. It’s just that I found the dance interrupted the flow of the play unfolding.
The acting is well intentioned and committed, with Honey Pham as Kai and Brenda Kamino as Lao Lao, a no-nonsense presence, doing strong work. But too often I found the other actors too hesitant and insecure. The pace was too slow.
Carried by the River is an honourable attempt to pay homage to memory, lost mothers and our true identities. It would be stronger with another pass of writing and more directorial diligence to the play rather than the concept.
Red Snow Collective presents:
Plays until March 23, 2025.
Running time: 95 minutes (no intermission)