The 100-minute, anime-inspired stage comedy uses the much-maligned food seasoning as metaphor for a Japanese American girl's 'othering' at school
Pop quiz: Is monosodium glutamate, the flavor-enhancing seasoning better known as MSG, dangerous to your health?
That’s the launchpad for Keiko Green’s “Exotic Deadly, Or the MSG Play,” which opened Thursday in its world premiere at the Old Globe. In the wildly funny, 100-minute, time-hopping play, Japanese American middle-schooler Ami discovers that her late grandfather invented the tasty white powder.
Director Jesca Prudencio’s jubilant in-the-round staging borrows many of the traditions of anime, a Japanese style of animation known for its eye-popping colors, spiky-haired characters, karate fights, pop-rock scoring and blazing-fast dialogue. Even the anime camera-panning technique is re-created by having actors pulled on and offstage on wheeled carts.
As Ami, the endearing Anna Mikami believably and sensitively plays a troubled teen in an identity crisis. Eunice Bae is a ball of fire as Exotic Deadly. The other four actors — Trevor Salter, Amy Kim Waschke, Michelangelo Hyeon and James Seol are all strong and very funny in multiple roles. Waschke is a particular standout as Ami’s fragile, long-suffering and very human mom.
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