By Đavid Lee Huỳnh
Directed by Nana Dakin
TheaterLab
2025
Set Designer: Patti Panyakaew
Assistant Set Designer: Zen Tunsa
Lighting Designer: Yang Yu
Sound Designer: Hao Bai
Projection Designer: Michi Zaya
Stage Manager: Clarissa Mota
Producers: Pradanya Subramanyan and Elizabeth Wu
Theatre meets TED Talk meets dark family secrets. With whimsy, sardonic humor, and heart, Đavid Lee Huỳnh shares how the effects of French colonialism shaped Vietnam, rippled out, and made it so #%@#ing hard for his mom to say “I love you."
The space transforms into a landscape of his personal growth, filled with objects that trace his past, present, and future, linked with the strings. Inspired by his childhood home in Louisiana—where his parents still live and where “her (mom's) belongings make her feel safer than the quiet”—each object carries its own emotional weight: a Chinese stool for his father, a teapot and tea tin for his mother, a Pokémon ball for his younger brother, a rice cooker for his grandmother, and an altar for his grandfather. Other pieces evoke his childhood pain alongside his happiest memories. Together, they create a world where he can acknowledge his past and step into the freedom of shaping his own future.
In the end, the strings of his darkest and brightest memories are lifted like a shifting scale--then released, collapsing as he lets go. He faces his family once more, moving forward with a deeper understanding and a shared path toward healing.
Julie Huang - “Through humor, small stings (and strings), and moments of restraint, he traces how hard it once was for his mom to say "I love you." This piece shines with the balance he finds: the wit, the honesty, the softness, the sting. You feel the years it took to reach this place where he can stand in front of a room and speak plainly."
Photo Credits: Patti Panyakaew and Joshua Screen
Design Concept Sketches