NEW YORK—Playwright Young Jean Lee, born in Korea but brought to the United States at the age of 2, is noted for her dealing with subject matter seemingly far from her personal experiences.
In Straight White Men, now in its New York premiere at the Public Theater, she takes on an apparently conventional American father-son drama.
A family consisting of three grown sons and their father are having a reunion at Christmas time in an unnamed Midwestern city.
In the first scene, youngest son Drew (Pete Simpson) and middle son Jake (Gary Wilmes) await the arrival of their dad, Ed (Austin Pendleton), and oldest brother, Matt (James Stanley), from a Christmas tree shopping excursion. Drew and Jake pass the time with Jake constantly interrupted in his television viewing by Drew’s annoying but funny antics.
