Word: yew
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...leader, Lee Kwan Yew, have managed to create a prosperous state, but at the cost of personal and civil liberty. Of course, there are many countries in Southeast Asia (such as Indonesia) that offer their citizens neither liberty nor prosperity. So few countries have managed the difficult transition from Third World poverty to modern prosperity that Singapore’s achievement—at whatever cost—seems remarkable, and perhaps even admirable...
...poor for a sexual revolution. Or too stubbornly conservative. Or tangled in political ideologies. One thing they all had in common: they were tightly controlled by their stodgy, patriarchal leaders. And it always seemed the last thing on the minds of men like Deng Xiaoping or Lee Kuan Yew was getting a little non-government-regulated action...
Race. Ethnicity. Homosexuality. AIDS. Partner abuse. Assisted suicide. That the script for Chay Yew's A Language of Their Own can weave together such an imposing cast of issues into so coherent a script is certainly commendable. But that the flesh-and-blood cast and crew of the Asian American Association's new production of Yew's play, directed by Jaynie Chen '02, can so effortlessly embody and ultimately transcend these issues is something truly amazing. A Language of Their Own, for all of the questions its complex issues raise, is essentially a very simple and very romantic play...
Admittedly, the pace of the second act slows somewhat with the incorporation of the two additional characters and the plot complications they provide. In part, this is due to the nature of the script. Yew includes several poetic monologues which, though eloquently written and sincerely delivered, do not cover a lot of new ground. On the whole, the best moments of A Language of Their Own come not when the characters elegize to the audience over the successes and failures of communication with each other, but when they literally establish (and at times destroy) an intimate and mutual working language...
...Chay Yew...