REVIEW | Keiko Green's 'Exotic Deadly' Spices Up a Tale of Japanese Identity With Humor and Time Travel

It's the dawn of Y2K, and Japanese American teen Ami is forever on the verge of disappearing. For the most part, she prefers to keep it that way: to get her mom off her back about being the perfect student like her brother, to fly under the radar and make it through high school in one piece. Though she feels alienated from her small family and eager to reject her Japanese roots, she feels ancestrally connected to her jii-chan, the mysterious, scientist grandfather whom she has vague memories of — until she finds out he created MSG (monosodium glutamate), the salty seasoning craze that's making big headlines for all the wrong reasons.

This family secret, along with her introduction to the rebellious new cool chick at school, code name Exotic Deadly, sends Ami further into an identity tailspin that transports her everywhere from the shimmering karaoke bars of 1970s Tokyo to the murky dark ocean floor.

This is the premise of Keiko Green's Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play, currently showing at Theatre Off Jackson through Saturday, Sept. 20. In the hilarious, nostalgic romp through time and space — presented by Pork-Filled Productions and SIS Productions, Ami finds her cultural pride the hard way: She learns how one racist piece of gossip can threaten an entire community.

Green could definitely be considered a heavy hitter in the playwriting and screenwriting game, with credits on the Hulu series Interior Chinatown, based on Charles Yu's novel, and she holds commissions for new plays from Manhattan Theatre Club/Sloan Foundation, The Atlantic Theatre Company, and Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C. Green is also enjoying a concurrent Seattle run of another play, Hell's Canyon, at 12th Avenue Arts. Her show at Theatre Off Jackson, Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play, has a coming-of-age story to tell, one whose surface radiates lighthearted nostalgia, but ultimately unshrouds a shameful American phenomenon derived from anti-Asian racism and pseudoscience.

The show's intimate staging at Theatre Off Jackson perfectly suits the play's audience-engaging, improv-like storytelling. Its set design, primarily a blocky bento box, proves to be both endearingly adorable and quite functional. The costuming is like, totally evocative of the baggy jeans and bright fashions that made the '90s. Props are skillfully used but overall sparse, secondary to the story's frenetic structure, as well as the emotion the actors carry across the stage.

Ami narrates her life directly to the audience as the scenes abruptly jump from traditionally staged dialogue to surreal, action-packed sequences that pay clear homage to samurai movies, American sitcoms, and buddy comedies, which serve as unique ways to move the plot forward. It would be easy for the play to start and end with one-dimensional clichés and tropes of the first-gen immigrant's story: a fraught relationship with a parent, the desperate desire to assimilate into American culture, the importance of food as a means of connection. And because Ami is a typical teen with tunnel vision, a girl who mostly cares about the insular issues of adolescents, such as boys, celebrities, and fitting in with her peers, those elements are there. The overall arc of the story is not entirely original, but like all good art, Green's play does run the audience through the spectrum of emotion — you'll laugh (so, so much), you'll cringe in secondhand embarrassment, you'll want to cry, and you'll clap and dance (because really, what's any '90s show without a well-placed musical episode?).

On an unhappy note, there's even a bit of frustrating queer-baiting between Ami and Betsy/Exotic Deadly, who certainly had her moment in the spotlight, but the character serves more as a physical embodiment of the spice itself and a vehicle for Ami's growth than as a proper titular character.

But what makes this production truly unique and memorable are the well-executed travel scenes through Ami's family history and the show's hilarious, high-energy delivery. Under Mimi Katano's superb direction, the actors consistently keep the production fresh, moving through decades and across (and even under) landscapes, from suburban America to post-WWII Japan and back. The ensemble cast maintains its momentum for the show's 110-minute runtime with no intermission. (Though the audience would benefit from one, to stretch and digest the first half of the play. The second act, unexpectedly, is more emotionally heavy, tackling topics like burnout, depression, and grief/loss.)

Exotic Deadly boasts standout performances from Karis Ho (Ami), Josh Kenji (Ben, ensemble), and Ken Kavin (Kenji, ensemble, understudy); Kenji and Kavin especially slipped seamlessly among a plethora of roles that's truly impressive for such a small cast.

A much-needed, mostly feel-good experience, Exotic Deadly can spice up your life as it tackles familiar themes about identity in a refreshing, exuberant way.

Learn more about the history of MSG from the International Food Information Council.

Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play

Theatre Off Jackson
409 7th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104

Wednesday, Sept. 17–Friday, Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 20, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: Sliding scale, $10–$50