“You For Me For You” reviewed by Carol Moore

 Recommended **** “You for Me for You” is a thought-provoking paean to the power of sisterly love.  It’s also downright scary, in a ‘I’m so glad I don’t live in North Korea’ kind of way.  With North Korea in the news a lot lately, the Sideshow production is very well-timed.  Coincidentally, the press opening was the same night that the White House announced that President Trump and Kim Jong Un would meet.  4 Spotlights

Playwright Mia Chung said she always wanted to write a play about North Korea, but it wasn’t until she read about a kidnap victim’s (Jaycee Dugard) sympathy toward her jailers and the whole concept of Stockholm syndrome that she got a handle on the people of North Korea.

There is a power struggle going on between sisters, Minhee (Helen Joo Lee) and Junhee (Jin Park), who have a tiny bowl of food.  Jinhee insists that her older sister, who has been ill, eat.  Minhee, equally insistent, tricks the younger sister into eating.

Minhee had a husband and a son.  While her son was at a harsh re-education camp, a sentence recommended by her husband/his father, where he died.  Soon after, her husband was taken.  Minhee waits for them to come home, denying the awful truth.

Jinhee takes her sister to a doctor’s (Gordon Chow) office, they must bow, scrape, offer payment, and ritualistic praise of his prowess, before he will hand Minhee a pill.  On the way out, they must hand him more money.  As she grows sicker and sicker, the doctor requires even more bowing, scraping and money.

When Jinhee suggests that they try to leave North Korea, Minhee is terrified, parroting rote phrases reflecting the party line which blames the American devils for all their problems.  Minhee insist she must stay and wait for her husband and son.  Jinhee,  ignoring her sister’s objections, makes the arrangements, bribing The Man from the South (Patrick Agada) to help them leave.  He warns them that the journey will be difficult and sacrifices will be demanded. After a hard journey, Jinhee makes it out, Minhee does not.  

Jinhee ends up in America.  When she first arrives the people around her are speaking in gibberish.  As she learns English, their language changes, from complete gibberish to an occasional English word discernable, to discernable phrases, to complete sentences.  Jinhee becomes a nurse, earning a good living.  Jinhee saves her money until she has enough to go back and find her sister.  Katy Carolina Collins plays all the American women.

Meanwhile, Minhee fell down a well, and in an Alice-in-Wonderland kind of scene, she ends up in a strange place with talking frogs (John Lu) and bears.  She meets a ‘rice musician’ (Chow) who ‘conducts’ the grains of rice instead of eating them.  She finds her husband, who shares all the torture he endured as well as all the possible deaths that followed.

Sideshow Theatre Company’s production of “You for Me for You” runs through April 8^th in Victory Gardens Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago.  Valet parking is available.

Running time is 1 hour, 45 minutes, no intermission.  Performances are:

Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 pm

Sunday at 2:30 pm.

Tickets range from $20-$30.  FYI (773) 871-3000 or www.victorygardens.org.

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