The Heart Sellers
A Day With Two Young Asian Immigrant Women
By: Victor Cordell - Feb 15, 2025
It is the 1970s. In Lloyd Suh’s play The Heart Sellers, recent immigrants Luna and Jane have just met by happenstance. So “What’s in a name?” asketh Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. If the title prompts queries, the answer is that it is a homonym representing the Hart-Cellar Act, formally known as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, pertinent to the characters’ lives and increasingly significant today. Prior to this legislation, over 80% of immigrants allowed into this country were from four European countries, because previous quotas were tied to the percentage of representation already in the American population
Luna is Filipina, and Jane is Korean. Apart from Asian heritage, other shared characteristics are that each is childless and both husbands are resident physicians who work long hours. Each woman feels lonely and isolated, and both husbands are working on this day, Thanksgiving, so the women decide to spend it together at Luna’s apartment.
The Heart Sellers is a two-hander comedy in which the actors wring every bit of humor from the most mundane conversation, much of it because of the cleverly crafted contrast in personalities. Their differences are also a reminder that while some people tend to lump Asians together as a homogeneous people, their societies are in fact quite different. The Philippines is predominately Catholic, pop-culture oriented, tropical, Spanish and American influenced, and among the poorer countries in Asia. Although Protestantism is the largest denomination in Korea, a majority claim no religion. It was colonized by Japan, has a charactergraphic writing system, values classical music, has four seasons in a northern climate, and has advanced economically and technically.
Though the two characters share common personal experiences and will ultimately bond, they are cut from different cloth. As Luna, an absolutely delightful Nicole Javier is shot from a cannon – effusive, ebullient, and goofy with a constant rapid patter and nervous movement from curtain up. She even asks if she talks too much and then clatters past her own question without waiting for or wanting a reply. Her charm is also driven by her broad, toothy smile and laughter, so natural, enduring, and endearing. Her typical Filipino accent is strong but with clear diction.
An equally compelling Wongjun Kim portrays Jane, but unlike Luna, her character evolves. Reticent at the beginning, she seems overpowered by the personable Luna. But in time, she emerges from her shell, in part because she knows what to do with the turkey that Luna has bought and in part because of the wine they consume. Not only does Jane’s face light up, but she becomes quite demonstrative and insistent, even placing demands on Luna, though they’ve just met. Korean born, Kim adopts an appropriately authentic Korean accent in English which can challenge a bit when she mumbles and stumbles and faces away at the beginning, but not so later on when she becomes more confident and vocal. And don’t worry. Even if you miss something, you haven’t really missed anything.
Happy to find someone to talk to, the young women become familiar quickly, sharing intimacies. Each shows curiosity about the other’s belongings when the other goes to the bathroom. Their shared curiosity extends to the idea of going to a nightclub when their husbands are on duty and taking in a porno movie.
Like many well-crafted comedies, The Heart Sellers brims with serious subtext. The balance of funny and dramatic moments works to great effect, and the title itself does have meaning as Luna relates the words with emotive and evocative imagery concerning the frightening experience of immigration interviews.
It is easy for an American to take an ethnocentric view of immigrants and their issues, but the playwright surfaces many of the plights of the immigrant from their perspective. Apart from the obvious matters of missing family, friends, and the support they provide, the women talk about missing little things like the smells and tastes of their homeland. They also talk about the loss of confidence when speaking a second language among people who don’t share the same sympathies and who may look down upon them. The notion of immigrants being caught between two cultures is perceptible by most people. But what about their future? Do things change if they become rich? And what about having children born here who, unlike their mother, are real Americans?
Jennifer Chang directs Aurora Theatre’s The Heart Sellers with a skilled hand, assuring that the timing of the verbal exchanges crackle. Javier and Kim do the rest with bravura performances. They make us care about these women and others like them, not only because of the cultural trials they face but because of their lack of agency, merely following in the footsteps of men. After 90 minutes of stage time, the oven timer rings, signifying the turkey is done. We wouldn’t mind sharing dinner with them.
The Heart Sellers, written by Lloyd Suh, is produced by Aurora Theatre Company and plays on its stage at 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA through March 9, 2025.