We’ve covered this play before, so it begs the question what prompts us to offer up details about this production, too. Simply put, Lauren Yee is a graduate of UC San Diego and this marks a homecoming for her in addition to a local premiere.

In Yee’s play a young woman tries to wrap her head around her family and its history three decades after her father left Cambodia. The way into this story is through the rock ‘n’ roll music of Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s.

The play features music by Los Angeles band Dengue Fever who celebrate precisely the kind of music depicted in Cambodian Rock Band. They wrote the songs for the play.

Yee has received great reviews for this play across the country and it is one of the most produced plays regionally this year.

The cast in this production includes Brooke Ishibashi, Abraham Kim, Jane Lui, Joe Ngo, James Ryen, Daisuke Tsuji and Moses Villaram. Chay Yew directs.

For tickets go here.

Photo from Cambodian Rock Band by Jim Carmody/Courtesy of the La Jolla Playhouse

The post Cambodian Rock Band appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

This world premiere of Lauren Yee’s play tells a father/daughter story with a twist. The daughter, Cambodian-American Neary, believes she has finally found the missing piece that might finally implicate a key member of the Khmer Rouge. When her dad make his first visit back to Cambodia in 30 years, it appears he has something else on his mind beyond tourism and a family reunion.

Chay Yew directs Cambodian Rock Band. The cast includes Brooke Ishibashi, Abraham Kim, Raymond Lee, Jane Lui, Joe Ngo and Daisuke Tsuji. The songs in the show are by Dengue Fever. It was Yee’s introduction to the music of Dengue Fever that inspired her looking back at the history of surf/rock band music in Cambodia. From there she was inspired by write this play.

Photo Credit: Tania Thompson/SCR

The post Cambodian Rock Band appeared first on Cultural Attaché.