Photo by Ken Yotsukura Photography.
East Coast Premiere presented by Chuang Stage
By Minna Lee
Directed by cara hinh
May 23 – June 13, 2026
Boston Center for the Arts
Plaza Theatre
Article by Kitty Drexel
BOSTON — Gentrification murders culture in the name of progress. Gentrification isn’t the same as healthy renovation of and fiscal investment in an historically underserved neighborhood (say, Dorchester and Chelsea, MA). Rather, gentrification steals political and fiscal autonomy from longtime residents and bestows it upon rich people. If you can pay the rent, you can remove the people who’ve lived in and loved in an area for generations without a second thought for where The Poors will go once they’re kicked out.
Chuang Stage’s My Home on the Moon by Minna Lee packages the horrors of gentrification-in-the-name-of-progress with a heaping dose of aptly uncanny A.I. It is a timely science fiction morality tale cum fever dream told through bowls of pho and other Vietnamese dishes. Mai (strong but grouchy Belle Le) wants to feed people well. She’s ready to serve pho to her community at Pho Lan, her boss Lan’s (Christina R Chan, perky and resilient) restaurant.
Unfortunately, her community has been decimated by all powerful tech shareholders with resources beyond Mai’s; Big Tech has gentrified Mai and Lan’s neighborhood; no one can afford rent. Customers can’t afford Pho Lan’s soup. They fear permanent closure… Until a mysterious corporate consultant, Vera (Emma Na-yun Downs, who is as eerie as she is optimistic), brings them good news: Novus Corp. has awarded the restaurant a grant! Pho Lan is saved!
Just as a Food Critic/Influencer (Lee Baladejo, earnest and nimble) and their followers begin to flood to Pho Lan, Mai sees a vision of an intergalactic noodle float through the restaurant. Everything is not as it should be! Mai may or may not be in The Matrix. Her restaurant home that once felt like a small piece of Heaven on Earth turns out to be a cage gilded by Novus Corp. to hold Mai, Lan, and Vera indefinitely. Mai must determine which she wants more, creating dishes for her clientele or the freedom that lies beyond what money can buy. Jenny S. Lee completes the cast as Gigi, a merciless CTO you’d never want to meet in a dark alley or a board room, and other roles.
In the playbill, Playwright Minna Lee tells us their script is inspired by working at Maruta Shoten market in Seattle. Amazon and its subsidiaries were decimating local businesses – restaurants, theaters, tailors, etc. – at the time. Just like Walmart did in the late-90s and early 2000s. Just like A.I. data centers are doing now. Lee’s play is uncannily timely to the world we live in now.
Fortunately for their Boston audience, Lee’s play is also highly entertaining. From the detailed scenic design by Qingan Zhang that reminded me of my own memories working as a prep cook in a summer restaurant in New Hampshire to the thoughtful and sexy intimacy direction by Kristian Espiritu, this production is solidly funny and likely prophetic. These are dark times of fascism. If we aren’t laughing, we’re accepting our fates.
A special shout out to the design team and actors involved in the show’s unnecessarily horny, H-Mart-like “Yes, Chef” commercial. That’s an unhinged work of genius that my hawt date and I will reference in conversation for years to come. We can’t unsee what you did to that jackfruit. And we’re okay with it.
(Congratulations to Andrew March for his tech direction and for being a grey cat. It must be difficult to work without thumbs.)
My Home on the Moon’s 90 minutes flew by on Wednesday night. It is well-paced and its actors are devoted to their characters and their reality. I left the BCA hungry for pho and renewed with energy to small-scale fight back against Big Tech, its sad programmers, and their ingratiating A.I. girlfriends. Go to My Home On the Moon for its lion dancing and karaoke. Stay for its deep dive into current events.
