Kristina Wong’s ‘Overlord’ mines laughs from scars of pandemic
Comedic solo show about a mask-making project recalls the unsettling early days of Covid outbreak.
Just call her the Don Corleone of elastic. That’s one of the many cheeky titles proudly worn by the master of the quirky quip behind “Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord.”
This 100-minute solo show generates plenty of giggles amid the panic as Wong, an actor with a zingy standup vibe, transports you back in time to the terrifying early days of the pandemic.
Everybody weathered Covid differently but for many of us, the memories remain painful. One of Wong’s recurring questions, amid repeated public health policy failures, is: “Is America a banana republic disguised as a democracy?”
Wong lionizes the efforts of her posse of Asian aunties and other progressive pals who banded together to sew masks to protect folks against the plague. The government wasn’t riding to the rescue anytime soon so Wong stepped up to do her damnedest.
Looking back, mask efficacy might seem like just another hot-button issue dividing society but at the time it was a deadly serious matter for some of us.Tautly directed by Chay Yew, this cathartic one-woman show keeps you thinking as hard as you laugh. Wong, a San Francisco native, labored long and hard over the thousands of masks she stitched on her Hello Kitty sewing machine in her Los Angeles home.
A Pulitzer nominated play, “Sweatshop” urges us to relive the trauma of the past few years and wonder whether the scars will ever entirely fade. Wong jokes about trigger warnings but it’s true there are many issues here that may touch raw nerves.
Even as she watched the anti-vax movement go mainstream, insurrectionists storm the capital and pandemic profiteering run amok, Wong attacked her mask-building mission with militaristic zeal. She needed to believe she could help protect the helpless, the essential workers and the sick, from the virus that ravaged society at large.
Linda Cho’s zany costumes frame Wong as a guerrilla warrior with an ammunition belt filled with spools of thread instead of bullets.
The shelter in place period may now seem like a bad dream but the missed funerals, weddings and graduations still sting. The generation of children bruised by school closures may never quite be the same, some experts fear. Certainly many worry that the rise in anti-Asian sentiment is here to stay.
That’s one of the saddest ironies in “Sweatshop.” No matter what the aunties do for their fellow Americans, to some they will always be foreigners.
It’s these squirming fears that true normalcy may indeed prove elusive that give “Sweatshop” its deep and lasting resonance. Nothing unmasks society’s flaws quite like an emergency.
While the show drags a bit as the Covid memories slide into the endless endemic stage, Wong is an engaging and fearless performer. She lets us chuckle at the horrors of the past but she also dares us to bravely face the future.
Contact Karen D’Souza at karenpdsouza@yahoo.com.
‘SWEATSHOP OVERLORD’
Written and performed by Kristina Wong, presented by American Conservatory Theater
Through: May 5
Where: ACT’s Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., San Francisco
Running time: One hour, 40 minutes, no intermission
Details: $25-$130 (subject to change); www.act-sf.org