The truth will out, according to Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. But he never said it would be easy.
Toronto artist Minh Ly demonstrates that firsthand with Ga Ting (Family) – a play where homophobia and racism clash head on, and regrets are only amended through hard conversations
In the emotional production from frank theatre (making its Vancouver debut at the Cultch), an elderly Chinese couple is faced with not only the sudden loss of their son Kevin to suicide, but with the fact that Kevin was gay. When Kevin’s Caucasian boyfriend shows up uninvited to the funeral, all three are forced to confront their deeply entrenched beliefs.
It’s a scenario that the now-32-year-old playwright found himself personally troubled by as he wrote.
“I’ve always wondered, if something ever happened to me, if my story would be told in some way,” Ly reveals, speaking by phone before rehearsals in Vancouver. “At that time, I wasn’t officially out to my parents, and you know, if I got hit by a bus one day, would there be someone to tell my story?”
In Ga Ting, both the partner and the parents believe (to a fault) that they know Kevin best. It’s a disconnect that plagues many families, Ly feels.
“Once you reach adulthood, you’re on your own and you lose, or at least I lost, a bit of communicating with my parents. [In Ga Ting] the boyfriend is the one who shares with the parents who he thinks the son really is,” Ly continues. “And of course the parents believe they know their own child, especially the dad. So conflict arises from there.”
Ga Ting was Ly’s first play, and his parent’s ultimately learned the truth about his orientation during its initial run in Richmond in 2014. Building on feedback, Ly says he has since reworked his script, taking a more balanced approach to the parents’ point of view, while pushing his characters (under director Rick Tae), deeper into the central issues of racism within the gay community and homophobia within the Asian Canadian-community.
As an actor, though, Ly also saw Ga Ting as a chance to draw attention to the lack of diversity in Canadian theatre.
“I had this image of a pair of older Asian actors on stage with a middle-aged white guy, basically,” says Ly, of his initial inspiration. “And I thought it would be interesting if something opened that way […] because I have probably seen that once in my life,” he adds. “I have seen younger coloured actors on stage, whether they be Asian or black or whatever, but I rarely see older Asian actors on stage. So that initiated how this play got started. I wanted to write something that put them front and centre.”
Ga Ting, which alternates between English and Cantonese (with surtitles), stars veteran actor and former Vancouver city councillor BC Lee, alongside Hong Kong film star Alannah Ong and Jessie Award-winner Brian J Sutton. As the boyfriend, Sutton is a new addition to the cast, while Lee and Ong are reprising their roles as the parents.
And while it places the tension of being gay and Asian squarely at its core, Ly is quick to point out that Ga Ting isn’t geared towards only those communities. He hopes instead that the play might inspire families to address unspoken conflict before it's too late.
• Ga Ting runs in the Vancity Culture Lab at the Cultch (1895 Venables) now until March 19. Tickets $25; Tickets.TheCultch.com
