By Kira Ricarte
On Friday, Sept. 27, the Brooklyn College Department of Theater commenced the fall 2024 season with their first show “Wolf Play” by South Korean playwright Hansol Jung.
The story is a comedy that follows the re-adoption of six-year-old Korean boy, Jeenu, portrayed by South Korean senior BFA actor, Chulun Jung, by a woman named Robin, portrayed by MFA actor Khaila Monet. This decision happens unbeknownst to her nonbinary wife, Ash, portrayed by BFA actor, Josabeth Simisterra.
Jolie Tong, the play’s director, first saw “Wolf Play” back when it was playing in the Soho Repertory Theater. She fell in love with it for its “scope of the imagination,” and more importantly, its themes.
“It’s a story about family,” she told The Vanguard in an interview a week prior to the show. “And it’s also a story about self-determination […] those were two topics I was interested in exploring in my own directorial work […] I was really gravitated to the heart of the story.”
Jeenu, introduced in the play as “Pete Junior,” was originally adopted from South Korea by American couple Peter and Katie. Peter, played by Jackson Kittrell, became increasingly overwhelmed by his behavioral issues, Katie’s intense dislike of the boy, and the task of raising their own newborn child. Thus, he and his wife decided to put him up for re-adoption via an ad in a Yahoo message board.
This was controversial among the adults in the play and became the topic of debate in an intense custody battle, interpreted through Jeenu’s eyes as a boxing match towards the end of the play.
To cope with being shuttled in and out of homes of strangers, Jeenu forged a separate identity: a fierce and adaptable lone wolf rather than a young boy. Thus, Jung donned a woolen cap with wolf ears and howled on stage to play Jeenu’s wild, yet charmingly intelligent, wolf self. “Wolves are an extremely adaptable species,” he once stated as he breaks the fourth wall in the show. “One of the few that survived the last ice age.”
To bring us inside his world, narrated through the voice of a documentary, Well Thorne designed the two-tiered stage to look like stone, with four different types of floor tiles scattered along its edges: white marble, bluish-green patterned rug, dull wooden flooring, and polished wood with a herringbone design. This stage, which becomes a kitchen, a courtroom, a boxing ring, etc., serves as a metaphor for a boy who tries to understand a frightening world through the lens of wilderness, and himself as a forest creature using his wits to survive it and find his pack.
Meanwhile, his actual little boy self was a small wooden puppet, designed by Deb Hertzberg, that Jung manipulates. The puppet betrayed Jeenu’s helpless and vulnerable nature, despite his wolf-like bravado, to the surrounding adults as they attempted to care, teach, discipline, and support him.
Given the play’s contentious topics, trigger warnings were provided by Tong to audience members before the show began. She, along with her cast and crew, aimed to make sure they were handling these topics responsibly.
“Well, one of the first things that we start with is research,” Tong told The Vanguard. “So that when we’re approaching topics that are sensitive or controversial, we have a firm grounding […] about international adoption, interracial adoption, LBGTQ+ history, marriage equality […] topics that the play explores [and] addresses.”
Actress Monet delved into her own exploration of what it means to be a mother to supplement the role of Robin. Throughout this process, she discovered that her depiction of Robin’s parenting was pulled from her real life.
“I think [as] how my mom always made space for me, I, as Robin, make space for Jeenu,” Monet told The Vanguard. Her character became infused with her mother’s qualities, notably her mother’s patience and her aforementioned ability to always make space for her.
To actors like Monet, showing love to the characters they play is precisely how “Wolf Play” comes to life. “The love that my mom has for me,” she told The Vanguard, “The love that she’s shown me is […] how I show love to Jeenu.”
Both Monet and Tong expressed how they enjoyed working on the show with their cast and crew. Monet said she felt a “sense of belonging” with them, which she hoped the audience would feel watching the play.
“I feel like we’re all excited to tell this story,” Tong told The Vanguard. “And it’s been a wonderful, collaborative, joyful, hopefully challenging in a good way, process.”
For more information on upcoming shows, students can visit the BC Department of Theater via the link on their Instagram account, @bctheatercuny