Han Ong - Criticisms

Criticisms

David Henry Hwang considers Ong as a “younger, or ‘Third Wave’ Asian/Pacific playwright” who refuses to focus mainly on racial issues. The American Repertory Theater’s Robert Brustein has compared Ong to Shakespeare because he is “the most exciting new talent to evolve in years” without much formal education. Writing in the New Yorker on the occasion of the world premiere production of "The L.A. Plays" at the American Repertory Theater, critic John Lahr said of Ong: "blessed with a singular theatrical voice, he's at the beginning of what is already an exciting career." Of that play's subsequent London production at the Almeida Theater, critic Michael Billington of the Guardian wrote that Ong "has a remarkable gift for distilled dialogue and for pinning down the fragmentation, solitude and despair of the city of dreams." San Jose Mercury News theater critic Judith Green praises Ong’s "Bachelor Rat" for his “deft way with words: an ability to layer poetry on reality and an unusual appreciation of irony.” However, Green criticizes the depth of "Airport Music" because it is “mostly about anger, which is a good servant but a bad master.” The Boston Globe's Kevin Kelly echoes these sentiments and has questioned Ong’s abilities and effectiveness. He refers to Ong as a “quick-scene dramatist” who has “brute observation, poetic sensibility, sharp characterization and cinematic skill.” Kelly attacks Ong’s performance as an actor (he assayed the lead in the American Repertory Theater production of "The L.A. Plays") and characterizes him as “a fussy, low-level actor who uses too many gestures and too often settles for moony passivity.” It should also be pointed out that Ong has been a performance artist whose solo shows "Symposium in Manila" and "Cornerstore Geography" have drawn praise in various cities (L.A., San Francisco, New York) where they have been performed.