Goodman's 'World of Extreme Happiness' a bleak view of modern China
"The World of Extreme Happiness" is a crusading protest play, plain and simple.
Now running at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in a co-production with New York's Manhattan Theatre Club (where it will play off-Broadway early next year), "The World of Extreme Happiness" by playwright Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig is a bleak comedy that endeavors to prod consumers to think about the exploitative human cost behind all those discounted "Made in China" products that we often take for granted in the U.S.
"The World of Extreme Happiness" certainly succeeds in terms of educating audiences about exploitation and injustices faced by both China's migrant laborers and business owners operating under the thumb of the country's Communist government. It's such an unflattering and critical portrait of China's rapid industrialization and centuries-old cultural biases against women that you can bet officials there have already censored any mention of this play on the Internet.
But as a drama, where it's hoped audiences will emotionally connect with at least some of the characters, Cowhig drops the ball with her largely "just-the-facts-ma'am" dramatization. "The World of Extreme Happiness" feels like you're watching a dispassionately exhaustive piece of investigative journalism more than a dramatic piece of empathetic theater.
"The World of Extreme Happiness" shocks Western sensibilities right from the start as it depicts the birth of the show's protagonist, the peasant girl named Sunny. Upset that they've given birth to another girl rather than a traditionally favored boy, Sunny's parents toss their newborn daughter in a pig slop bucket to die (yet another female victim of China's one-child policy).
But Sunny (Jennifer Lim) goes on to survive and we see her next in a faraway city as an illiterate 19-year-old factory cleaner who must financially assist her family back home. Unfortunately, Sunny's rural widowed father, Li Han (Donald Li), spends most of her money on racing pigeons, while her younger brother, Pete (Ruy Iskandar), wants to flee the sticks and join her in the big city.
When a co-worker commits suicide, Sunny gets the courage to ask for a promotion to fill his vacant job. But Sunny's elderly supervisor Old Lao (Francis Jue) initially thwarts (and potentially blackmails) her from trying to rise above her station.
Sunny then falls under the spell of self-improving and materialistic co-worker Ming-Ming (Jo Mei), who inspires her to dream big and desire to earn big money. But ultimately Sunny and Ming-Ming become rivals when Jade River corporate executive Artemis (Jodi Long) plans auditions for a factory employee to be a spokeswoman to front a public-relations campaign to counter the negative Western press of worker suicides.
What Cowhig presents in "The World of Extreme Happiness" is blunt and unsettling as none of the characters come off too well by the end. Director Eric Ting certainly stages the show fluidly enough with a very talented ensemble who surround Lim as Sunny in a multitude of well-acted rural and big-city characters.
But the darkly comic tone that Cowhig appears to be attempting isn't realized in Ting's production. There aren't many laughs to be had not only because Cowhig's material is so unrelentingly critical, but because Ting's directorial approach feels reluctant to play things too broadly to spur the necessary uncomfortable humor.
It's great that the Goodman has teamed up with Cowhig to expose audiences to a slice of complex Chinese life today via an all-Asian heritage cast and without a Western character to be the typical guiding interloper. But for a protest play like "The World of Extreme Happiness" to truly work, there needs to be more dramatic connections to the characters and their situations. Audiences will certainly leave better informed, but they won't likely be emotionally moved to action.
“The World of Extreme Happiness”
★ ★ ½
Location: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, (312) 443-5752,
Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday (no evening show Oct. 12); through Sunday, Oct. 12
Tickets: $10-$40
Running time: About 2 hours 20 minutes, with intermission
Parking: Area pay garages and metered street parking
Rating: For mature audiences because of language, sexual situations and violence