Qui Nguyen's Soul Samurai is either part homage to 1970s samurai flicks, part homage to blaxploitation films of the same era, a darker version of Escape from New York, an echo of Warriors, a dark Buffy the Vampire Slayer set in a post-apocalyptic New York City, or an updated love story similar to Romeo and Juliet. And if you think that's a confusing olio, it's only because describing the experience of watching this play is harder than actually watching it.
 In the small HERE Arts Center theatre, on a dismal late Sunday afternoon, about fifty people entered the intimate, 100-seat theatre and were transported—via a minimalist stage, some low-key animation, and five incredibly athletic actors—into New York City after the fall, when the boroughs are each ruled by their own gang leader/warlord. In this dark future, steel is strength, gang colors are family affiliations, and the Longtooth gang of Brooklyn are a crew not to be crossed. Dewdrop (the tiny Maureen Sebastian) is on a mission to avenge her murdered lover, but to get there, she'll have to learn the skills of a samurai, convince Grandmaster Mack (Jon Hoche), the ruler of Manhattan and owner of the Brooklyn Bridge, to let her cross into Brooklyn to seek out and kill Boss 2K (Sheldon Best), the head of the Longtooths. She relents only long enough to allow her sidekick, the played-for-comic-relief Cert (Paco Tolson) to come with her. And while her mission is straight-forward, and her sword is strong, fighting two-handed across Brooklyn and back, against a seemingly endless stream of enemies, is not a mission with a high probability of success. And when they run into Lady Snowflake (Bonnie Sherman), failure looks almost certain. But there are twists and turns aplenty, and Dewdrop's relationship with Sally December may last longer than either of them expected. [Photo at left: Cert (Paco Tolson), Dewdrop (Maureen Sebastian), and Pastor (Jon Hoche).]
 South Park episode "Asspen" for the need of a montage), a couple of fascinating interludes (titled "The Completely Uninteresting Tale of Marcus Moon", in which one actor voices Moon's thoughts and words while another acts out his actions), and a strange segment of memories using puppets (think Avenue Q; this segment felt more like they were doing it because they could). If laid out from front to back, the story might have been a bit less engrossing, but Nguyen definitely knows how to tell a story. [Photo at right: Dewdrop (Maureen Sebastian) and Master Leroy Green (Sheldon Best) in a flashback.]
 In addition to writing the play, Nguyen was the Fight Director, and he definitely knows how to choreograph a fight scene. There were times when I wondered if the actors had been chosen more for their physiques than their acting abilities (and that's not a slight to them as actors): they are incredible. [Photo at left: Sally December (Bonnie Sherman) with puppets.]
In such a small theatre, at times it really feels as if the characters are not performing a play, but interacting with the audience. I found myself flinching from some of the swordplay, but hanging on every thrust. And I can't say enough about the five actors, each of whom played a plethora of characters, and was able to differentiate them one from another by more than simply costumes. There were a few times when I found myself counting bodies on stage, to see if there truly were only five of them (Best, for instance, has at least four death scenes in the play).
 Almost as interesting as the play is the playwright's personal story. He writes in the playbill "Soul Samurai is a dream project of mine, a show I've always wanted to write and see. Growing up as a Vietnamese American kid raised in the projects of southern Arkansas, the world around me was a mixture of my parents' traditional Eastern values mixed with my neighborhood's strong soul-food vibe. Inside the home, my steady diet of entertainment reflected that world. I grew up watching kung fu flicks and blaxploitation films. For me, Shaolin Monks always went hand-in-hand with heroes such as Foxy Brown, John Shaft, and Black Belt Jones.… Seeing Bruce Lee and Richard Roundtree made raising my head up high easy and convinced me that it wasn't a silly idea to believe that I too could be the baddest mamma jamma in my 'hood. It was about heroes. Movies like Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon, Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection, and Shaft were movies that made being a yella fella playing in the projects not so bad. Soul Samurai is my show honoring those flicks and hopefully adding another yella heroine to the bunch." [Photo at right: Grandmaster Mack (Jon Hoche) and Lady Snowflake (Bonnie Sherman).]
He definitely grabbed me, and I recommend the show to you.
Soul Samurai is at HERE Arts Center, 145 Sixth Avenue (between Spring and Broome Streets) in Manhattan, New York. The show runs Wednesday through Sundays at 8:30PM, with matinees on Saturdays at 4PM. Tickets are $25 ($20 for students and seniors) from 212-352-3101.
Soul Samurai is written and fight directed by Qui Nguyen, directed by Robert Ross Parker, and stars Sheldon Best, Jon Hoche, Maureen Sebastian, Bonnie Sherman, and Paco Tolson. The show is presented by the Ma-Yi Theater in association with Vampire Cowboys.
[All photos copyright 2009 by Jim Baldassare, Press Representative, and used with permission.]
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