Review: Synchronicity Takes Stellar Journey From 'MOUNTAIN' to 'MOON'

There’s an old literary adage that there are only four unique story plots - love stories, love triangles, power struggles, and the journey; everything else is just a retelling.  In the 2009 children’s novel Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, author Grace Lin tells her story using elements of Chinese folklore, the American classic The Wizard of Oz, and the quintessential “journey” plotline.  And now Synchronicity Theatre is also retelling by staging their own production of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, adapted from Lin’s book by Jeannine Coulombe and directed here by Justin Anderson.

The story follows young Minli, a girl living at the foot of the Fruitless Mountain with her scolding Ma and her affectionate Ba. Minli lives for the fantastic stories her father tells her of Magistrate Tiger, the Paper of Happiness, the dragons who once soared in the sky over their home, and the titular Old Man of the Moon.  Like every epic hero, Minli leaves home on a quest seeking the Old Man, is joined along the way by a hapless dragon, and finds the answers to her problems at the end of her journey - though not quite in the way she expects.  

The team at Synchronicity has done an amazing job with just about every aspect of their show experience.  From the artwork in the lobby mimicking the painting drawn in the show to the appropriately sparse and transporting scene design, the performance draws the audience in before the actors even step foot on the stage.  

A placard in the lobby proudly proclaims that Synchronicity and their community partner East by Southeast has made sure each performer, even the swings, is of Asian heritage. In fact, many of their names are printed in kanji, hangul, and other native characters, and theater-goers can pick up a lucky red fortune at the box office to immerse themselves in the culture of the show. Located prominently at the entrance to the theater, the lobby display also draws attention to the fact that so many Asian and Asian-American stories have been put on the backburner of American media - or worse, subjected to outdated “yellow-face” by casting white actors in lieu of AAPI performers. 

The show itself also celebrates many aspects of traditional Asian performance art - elements of Noh theater, martial arts stage fighting, fan dancing, and a variety of puppetry with each style outshining the last.  From the first scene with hand-puppet dragons, through projected shadow puppetry and cloth doll manipulatives, it’s a stunning coup de theatre dazzling viewers of any age.

Kristina Jin leads the cast as Minli, a girl at times charming, curious, worried, and brave.  It was easy to slip into the belief that Jin was younger than her years as she led the audience on her journey alongside Dragon, played by Willie Frierson, Jr..  Frierson plays a semi-Scarecrow to Jin’s Dorothy with all the faux-clumsy physicality of a modern Ray Bolger.  

The rest of the cast shines brightly, too, in dual (or more!) roles.  Charlene Hong White is the fearsome mother Jade Dragon as well as Minli’s own mother, turning from disgruntled to sentimental as her daughter journeys on.  Her softhearted counterpart of Ba is played well by Toru Shimoji, who shows himself to be insanely multifaceted as the mysterious Old Man of the Moon and the fearsome (and karate-skilled) Green Tiger.  The ensemble brought moments of drama, terror, and even slapstick humor with Chris Hecke’s bumbling Emissary Chu, Crystal Lo’s high-and-mighty Magistrate Tiger, and Kevin Qian’s clever Goldfish Man.

Synchronicity Theatre has put together a delightful interwoven tale of dragons, family, folklore, and puppetry, and in between their Saturday matinee and evening performances, the Center for Puppetry Arts joins them in the lobby to host a puppet-making workshop free for all attendees.  It was a charming way to end a thoroughly enjoyable performance.  In Act I, Ba tells Minli that “stories are not a waste of time.”  After seeing Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, this critic is in firm agreement.

Synchronicity Theatre’s performance of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon runs through February 18th. Visit SynchroTheatre.com for more information and to purchase tickets