The mental disease passed from mother to daughter in the drama “99 Histories” never gets a formal name.
It could be schizophrenia, personality disorder or any other number of mental ailments. The specific diagnosis of the lead character, Eunice, isn’t what’s important in Julia Cho’s work about family, crisis and identity. What matters in this show are larger themes about what we inherit from our forebears.
Director Terry Dodd and an able cast never lose sight of that focus in this production by the Theatre Esprit Asia troupe, an organization that debuted earlier this year as “Colorado’s first and only Asian-American theater company,” as the program puts it. This show proves that the young troupe has plenty of creative potential, especially considering the fact that “99 Histories” is the company’s third production.
Strong ensemble performances by Matthew Block, Dale Li, Kim Yan and SunHee Seo point to compelling works to come from the TEA company. But the success of this show hinges on its lead actors.
Cho’s drama centers on the homecoming of Eunice (Tria Xiong), a troubled adult still suffering from the scars of a childhood illness. Eunice, a former violin prodigy whose career was cut short because of her unspecified mental issues, comes back pregnant and unmarried to her childhood home in L.A. and her mother Sah-Jin, played by Sheila Ivy Traister.
Eunice’s past comes to the audience in flashbacks cleverly written by Cho and cleverly executed by Dodd and the cast in the tight confines of the Vintage’s studio theater. We learn about the history of Eunice’s family – her mother’s childhood in Korea, her father’s death at the hands of criminals robbing the family’s convenience store. We learn about the illness that cut her musical career short and the genetic roots the malady had in her mother’s generation. The pressures of being a first-generation American and of living up to an immigrant family’s ideals all come through in a free narrative approach.
But that background is secondary to the drama’s real heart: the relationship between Eunice and her mother. The interactions between mother and daughter are powerful; both Xiong and Traister are at their most powerful in these scenes. As Eunice struggles with the prospect of passing on an illness to her unborn child, the drama raises intense questions about family and parental love.
Those issues are larger than any specific diagnosis, and the TEA crew understands that.
“99 Histories”
Runs through Nov. 16,
Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St.
Tickets start at $25. Information: 303-856-7830
or theatre-esprit-asia.org.
* * *
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com