Lloyd Suh’s timely The Heart Sellers has become one of the most produced plays in the U.S. since premiering two years ago. With immigration policy once again front and center, it’s no wonder the story of a pair of recent transplants from Asia bonding over a frozen turkey and the mixed blessings of their similar situations has struck such a chord.
But The Heart Sellers has little to do with current politics. Instead, in a superbly subtle, affecting production at Amphibian Stage in Fort Worth, it turns out to be a timeless human tale: the joys and struggles of finding one’s place in the world, especially when you’re so far from home.
Suh's title is a play on words; he was actually inspired by a piece of now ancient history: The Hart-Celler Act of 1965, which opened up immigration from Asian, African and Latin American countries for the first time since the 1920s. Policy had previously favored Europeans.
The Heart Sellers is set eight years later on Thanksgiving of 1973. Luna, from the Philippines, and Jane, who’s Korean, have met for the first time at the grocery store and are now in Luna’s apartment gradually getting to know one another, revealing in real time over 80 minutes what’s inside of them.
The audience knows the turkey they’ve stuck in the oven at 400 degrees will never be ready, and maybe they do too. Bright-eyed Jane (Tara Park) and melancholy Luna (Olivia de Guzman) are not as innocent or naive as they first seem, and they have devastating senses of humor. From their speech, which includes American idiomatic expressions and eventually saltier language, you can tell they’ve been in the U.S. for a minute.
They have much shared history, even beyond the fact that their husbands are first-year residents at a local hospital and therefore never around. They start by comparing notes on American culture and eating Ritz crackers sprayed with Easy Cheese. Drinking wine from a Mickey Mouse mug, Jane reveals she’s a fan of Soul Train.
Though they don’t have a lot of money, that will change when their husbands become fully practicing doctors. What’s really eating away at them are the limitations of being both women and immigrants in a sexist, xenophobic world, trading military coups and martial law back home for 1970s America’s version of hard times. They think about what might’ve been if they weren’t in semi-arranged marriages that have kept them from pursuing their wildest dreams.
Jane wonders if coming to the U.S. is a big adventure or the safe choice. Luna depicts a scene she saw near the airport after arriving in America that makes her question if she’s where she’s supposed to be. They know they’ve traded a life with their families and friends for the potential of greater opportunities in the U.S. But have they sold their hearts in the process?
Suh’s script handles these ideas gently, with de Guzman and Park coming across as real people, not ideological mouthpieces, under the sensitive direction of Shyama Nithiananda. Despite their tough situation, The Heart Sellers is never glum. Instead, it’s a warm, bittersweet look at life’s challenges that anyone should be able to relate to.
Details
Through Aug. 17 at Amphibian Stage, 120 S. Main St., Fort Worth. $7-$62. amphibianstage.com.
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