About the Play:

Redwood Curtain is a full-length comedic drama by Lanford Wilson. A seventeen-year-old Vietnamese-American girl raised by wealthy adoptive parents in the United States, meets a Vietnam War veteran and follows him behind the curtain of the Redwood Forest in northern California where he and other veterans live, hoping he is, or can help her find, her long-lost father.

Redwood Curtain is moving and powerful story about a Vietnamese teenager's search for her father, a former American soldier. Geri, a seventeen-year-old Vietnamese-American has taken time out from a rigorous touring schedule as a piano prodigy to stay on her Aunt Geneva's Redwood plantation in Northern California. She's been coming here for years, but recently she's become obsessed with approaching the homeless Vietnam veterans who retreated to the forests because they couldn't cope with society after returning from the war. One such veteran she interviews in the forest, Lyman, she detains against his will and tells him lies about what she does know to be true about her nameless natural father in hopes that maybe Lyman knew, or even is, him. Lyman acts guilty and tries to flee, but Geri, who says she's been studying the mysticism of the East, casts a spell over him that she says will bring him back to her. Geneva is horrified at Geri's actions, and while she warns her of the dangers of approaching these homeless men, she also sympathizes with Geri's predicament: Namely, as an Asian woman, Geri feels a deep need to know her ancestral history (and in particular the history of her father) in order to structure her life. Tired of the classical music circuit and recording contracts, Geri wants to establish a new life for herself based on knowledge about her biological parents. Her adoptive father, who encouraged her in music from an early age, has since died of alcoholism while her adoptive mother has taken to world travel and has no time for Geri. Geneva gives Geri some details about her natural father that makes it seem like the man Geri met in the forest is indeed him. She persuades her aunt to come with her and they finally meet with Lyman where the shocking and moving truth of Geri's heritage comes to light.

Redwood Curtain was first performed in 1992 at the Bagley Wright Theatre by Seattle Repertory Company. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US, including on Broadway at Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1993, and has been mounted by colleges and community theatres.

Cast: 2 female, 1 male

What people say:

"[Lanford Wilson's] most powerful [play] since Talley's Folly … a state-of-the-nation piece for the early 1990s … enormous wit and compassion … a real yarn with a satisfying old-fashioned mousetrap of a plot." — New York Times

"…a fascinating, suspenseful yarn." — USA Today

"Redwood Curtain is equal parts fairy tale, mystery and comedy. Wilson skillfully blends fantastic, magical, suspenseful, and human elements to produce an intimate human drama." — Variety

"A journey into the American psyche … The gritty and/or down home realism of Wilson’s best plays has been combined with magical qualities that make the work a kind of folk/fairy mystery tale." — Seattle Times

About the Playwright:

Lanford Wilson (1937-2011) was one of the most distinguished American playwrights of the late 20th century. He was instrumental in drawing attention to Off-Off Broadway, where his first works were staged in the mid-1960s. He was also among the first playwrights to move from that milieu to renown on wider stages, ascending to Off Broadway, and then to Broadway, within a decade of his arrival in New York. His work has also long been a staple of regional theaters throughout the United States. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980, was elected in 2001 to the Theater Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.