A DEAL, Off Broadway Premiere at Urban Stages

by Zhu Yi

Directed by John Giampietro

Wednesday, November 15, 2017 through Sunday, December 10, 2017

CAST: Alan Ariano, Pun Bandhu, Helen Coxe, Lydia Gaston, Wei Yi Lin, and Seth Moore.

TECHNICAL ARTISTS: Rebecca Kane (Stage Manager), Jeana Caporelli (Assistant Stage Manager), Frank Oliva (Set Designer), John Salutz (Lighting and Sound Designer), Audrey Nauman (Costume Designer), Ryan Belock (Video Designer) and Kim Sharp (Technical Director).

ABOUT THE SHOW Like many new upper-middle-class Chinese families, Mr. and Mrs. Li are proud to give their only daughter a life they could only dream of (an Ivy League degree in art and an apartment in Manhattan), until they realize she’s turning into a dangerous stranger.

A DEAL is a dark comedy that features a Chinese family’s home buying journey in New York in winter 2015, a time of increased real estate property ownership by overseas Chinese and a sharp decline in the value of the Chinese yuan against the US dollar. It reveals the ideological conflicts between the East and the West in contemporary society by tracking a little stream of the global cash flow.

This was the first Off-Broadway production for international known playwright Zhu Yi and A DEAL. The play simultaneously toured China in Mandarin.

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REVIEWS

A Deal is interesting, innovative and thought-provoking. It’s also rich with humor. The slow-motion choreographed fight scene between the father, Mr. Li, and Peter, the mother’s one-time acting partner (and lover?) is hilarious. Peter, well-played  by Pun Bandhu, represents the mother’s past and acts as a guide to American life.

Beatrice Williams-Rude, TheaterPizzazz.com http://theaterpizzazz.com/a-deal-and-consequences/

Director John Giampietro aptly shepherds actors Alan Ariano, Helen Coxe, Pun Bandhu, Lydia Gaston, Wei-Yi Lin, Seth Moore to realize solid, believable performances so that we may empathize with their struggles. The humor reigns throughout.  The production is a must-see for its currency.

Carol Di Tosti, BlogCritics.org https://blogcritics.org/theater-review-nyc-deal-zhu-yi-urban-stages/

Do you have to give up your happiness and traditions in your home country for profit and prosperity in another? These question billow through A Deal as you watch Mr. and Mrs. Li, along with Pun Bandhu’s elegant Peter, ponder their perceptions of China and their marked decisions over their future. Their scenes together give the play its biggest laughs,  yet, their moments are also the most poignant in showing that it is not as much whether you let go of your country, but if your country lets go of you.

Diandra Rivera, DiandraReviewsItAll.com https://diandrareviewsitall.com/theatre-review-zhu-yis-deal-shows-pact-immigrant-country/

Pun Bandhu— playing multiple parts here as he did in The Treasurer — provides Peter with equal parts sweetness and cunning. Internationally known playwright Zhu Yi has given New Yorkers a gift with A Deal

The Unforgettable Line Theatre Review Blog https://theunforgettableline.com/tag/zhu-yi/