The Shipment and Lear

The Shipment and Lear

<div><p>“A subversive, seriously funny new theater piece by the adventurous playwright Young Jean Lee. . . . Ms. Lee does not shy away from prodding the audience’s racial sensitivities—or insensitivities—in a style that is sometimes sly and subtle, sometimes as blunt as a poke in the eye.”—Charles Isherwood, <i>The New York Times</i></p><p>“Lee is a facetious provocateur; she does whatever she can to get under our skins—with laughs and with raw, brutal talk . . . [and with] so ingenious a twist, such a radical bit of theatrical smoke and mirrors, that we are forced to confront our own preconceived notions of race.”—Hilton Als, <i>The New Yorker</i></p><p>With <i>The Shipment</i>, her latest work taking on identity politics, Young Jean Lee “confirms herself as one of the best experimental playwrights in America” (<i>Time Out New York</i>). The Korean American theater artist has taken on cultural images of black America, in a play that begins with sketches of African American clichés—an angry, foul-mouthed comedian; an aspiring young rapper who ends up in prison—and ends with a seemingly naturalistic parlor comedy, which slyly reveals the larger game Lee is playing, leaving us to consider the many ways that we see the world through a racial lens.</p><p><b>Young Jean Lee</b> is a playwright, director, and artistic director of her own OBIE Award-winning theater company, which as been producing her plays since 2003. Her other works include <i>Songs of Dragons Flying to Heaven</i>, <i>Church</i>, <i>The Appeal</i>, and <i>Pullman, WA</i>, and they have been produced across the country and internationally.</p></div>