Kim clings desperately to the belief that Chris will return to save them, and in one of the drama's most powerful scenes, even kills to protect her son. Chris, meanwhile, sleeps fitfully back in the United States with his new American wife. Magical touches abound as the story winds to its inevitable close. Bar girls sing on a darkened stage, their isolated faces spotlighted like lost and lonely moons. Time after time, pieces of sets assemble for a scene, then break apart as the world was breaking apart to dissolve into the next scene.
Refugees trudge off an empty stage into the mists of an uncertain future.
The list of wonderful moments is gratifyingly long. Photo by Joan Marcus Mika Nishida plays Kim with strength and vulnerability, singing with clarity. Conductor Charles duChateau delivered a well paced, tightly controlled performance. Lead performer Joseph Anthony Foronda, the amoral Engineer, offered the only comic, and therefore most entertaining, character. Delicious in his depravity, Foronda oiled his greedy way through the plot, pimping himself even more than his girls.