SIS Productions' Year Zero: Integration for 'Fugees.

When one stops to think about it, it only makes sense that the American narrative Arts are fixated on the immigrant's story; being a nation built on the sweat and labors of those who've emigrated here (forcefully, illegally and otherwise), it's to be expected. The immigrant's story permeates American culture, from The Godfather, to Los Norteños to Superman, the details of what happens to people once they have arrived upon our shores is a shared fascination for us.

The Superman analogy is something that is mentioned in Michael Golamco's Year Zero, currently being produced by SIS Productions at the Richard Hugo House, a touch of the kind of self-awareness the characters in his play exhibit. This self-awareness is also one of the few things that separate this immigrant's story from the rest of the pack; a list that also includes the ethnic background represented (Cambodian refugees from the Pol Pot dictatorship) and the milieu they find themselves in (gang-related areas of Los Angeles).

This latter development isn't all that surprising given the sociological pattern of first generation Americans; history is filled with fill-in-the-blank Mafia movements that take place not long after a given population moves to a new host country. It seems the binary choices for many immigrants is meteoric achievement or equally precipitous dives into lives among the criminal underworld; these are the options. Our young hero Vuthy (Moses Yim) is caught between several of these dichotomies: He's a brainiac high school with an artistic sensibility. He has a hard time fitting in anywhere at his school though; he complains that he's too ethnic for the white kids at school, and not ethnic enough for the other Cambodian students (a very common complaint among young first-generation-ers). In fact, the only human being with whom he feels any kind of kinship is Han (Johnny Patchamatla), who describes himself as "the world's biggest Cambodian". Han has just been released from jail for participating in a gang-related crime.

Vuthy also feels a connection with a human skull he keeps in the cookie jar, an object he pleads with to take care of his recently deceased mother. Due to this, he is currently under the care of his sister, Ra (Elizabeth Daruthayan), a pre-med student at Stanford, who is back in town in order to liquidate their mother's business and ship Vuthy to a close-by relative before returning to school.

Zero primarily concerns itself with these three characters (though some attention is paid to Glenn, Ra's Chinese-American boyfriend played by Christian Ver in the performance viewed, but played by David Hsieh on closing weekend), who represents an immigrant culture that's been well-integrated into current society); and together they symbolize the immigrant's spectrum in America, with Vuthy stuck in the middle. That they reach these positions is due to the effect that the need to escape their homeland has had on their parents. Han's folks suffered from Survivor's Guilt, to the extent that they simply stopped living life, beyond meeting some rudimentary societal demands; Vuthy's and Ra's mother went to the other extreme, taking advantage of every possible opportunity that presented themselves and holding some high expectations for her progeny, to the extent that this is all they ever really knew of her. She kept the harsher elements of her escape from them, so they didn't understand exactly where the expectations came from.

These are examples of the thematic ripples found within Golamco's script, there are more than a few more at play (i.e. - the horrible tragedy that was Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regine; why Reagan's acceptance of the Cambodian's refugees matters to this population; the pecking order of the Asian-American sub-strata; how cultures first mesh at the culinary level; etc.) -- but they all emanate from the central presentation of this story as kitchen-sink drama/a coming of age story. The ordinariness of this story is given some necessary layers by the humor expressed by the characters, and in the uniqueness of seeing Hood Life on the stage. The characters may not be all Thugz 4 Life, but they're not too far removed, and that's something you don't see all that often.

As an amalgamation of all of these traits, Golamco's Year Zero represents something of a challenge; a balancing act that needs to meet many criteria in order to be wholly successful. SIS' production manages to meet the majority of them. This is another series of committed performances given by the entire ensemble; credit must be given to director Miko Premo for pulling that dedication from her performers, though she's sometimes guilty of awkward or static blocking. Things like true representation of the community in question have to be given a pass, due to a scarcity of Cambodian acting talent in the region (something that changes with further integration into society); similarly, the question of whether the Street characters are street-enough should be both noted and put aside. The ambition of the project helps to put the evening over the top.

For SIS and Golamco have given us a rare glimpse into a world we remain not that familiar with, despite how familiar it all seems. As a first step towards recognizing this culture and population, that speaks volumes. As a theater company that is attempting to represent a largely under-served community in Seattle, SIS (along with ReAct, PFP, and by extension ethnic-specific companies like Pradithwani and eSe Teatro) continues to make progress toward regularly featuring creative triumphs amid some impressive displays of ambition. Just like every other theater company in town.

Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00p.m., Saturdays at 4:00p.m.; through October 22 // Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Avenue // $12 - $15