ACT ONE
Scene 1
Brackets indicate lines being spoken in Korean.
AT RISE: KYLE, twenty-two years old, stands across the stage from his MOTHER, fifty-three.
KYLE
Hey. I’m Kyle.
His mother shakes her head.
MOTHER
Tae-hu.
KYLE
(to Mother)
Kyle, Mom. You know I don’t like being called that.
(to audience)
I am the whitest white-bread Korean kid you will ever know. I hate the taste of kimchi. Played baseball since I was five - the great All-American past time. The only Korean words I know are the things that white people say to me when they ask me what I am, and I tell them I’m Korean - you know, when they go, “Hey! I know some Korean words! And they tell me, “ahnyunghahsehyo, saranghe, bulgogi.”
(shakes head)
Hello, I love you, and the name of a Korean meat dish. Extra points if they’re really cultured, and know “soju” and “norebang.”
MOTHER
[I came here twenty years ago with my husband, to make opportunities for myself and my family. I worked eighteen hours every day at a liquor store, worked so hard that the first two times that I got pregnant, I had miscarriages. So when Tae-hu came along - my husband and I were very happy.]
KYLE
My mother tells me that when I first went to kindergarten, I didn’t know a word of English. I didn’t even know my own name - I guess the word sounded different, rolling off English-speaking tongues. None of the other kids would play with me - so I played by myself.
(pause)
But - you know, it’s all good. I learned, eventually. And baseball is something that you don’t need words to play, once you understand the game.
MOTHER
[Our namesake. Our beautiful son who carried with him all our hopes and dreams of a future in America. When my husband passed - ]
She stops, and begins to choke up. Kyle looks at her.
KYLE
(sighing)
Are you talking about Dad again? Why are you doing that? You know it makes you upset -
His mother shakes her head, and wipes away her tears.
MOTHER
[He died when Tae-hu was six. I was cooking dinner while Tae-hu’s father slept on the couch - I tried to wake him up and tell him that it was ready, but he wouldn’t move. I thought, at first, that he was playing a game - he had a very funny sense of humor. But when I touched his face, and it was cold - I knew something was wrong.]
KYLE
He’d had a heart attack. My mother called 911 - but the operator couldn’t understand what she was saying. She was hysterical, and the only thing she knew how to say was -
MOTHER
(broken English)
Help! Help, please!
KYLE
She was on the phone for a long time, trying to explain - precious minutes passed. I came home from a friend’s house -
MOTHER
(shoving a phone at him)
[Tell them! Tell them!]
KYLE
My dad’s in trouble. He’s not moving. Twenty seventy-seven East Maple Street. My zip code is 90032.
He hangs up the “phone,” and his mother begins to pace.
KYLE
We waited in the hospital for a long time.
MOTHER
[When the doctor came out, I knew what he was going to say without him even telling me.]
KYLE
I had to translate for her. I didn’t even really know what death was, and I had to explain it.
MOTHER
[I loved my husband with all my heart.]
KYLE
I was only six.
MOTHER
[I think his father’s death changed him.]
KYLE
If she had known English, maybe -
MOTHER
[I didn’t have the words. Maybe if I had the words - ]
KYLE
I decided that day, it was more useful to know English. It was better to be American -
His mother slaps him. Kyle cowers.
MOTHER
[Where did you go?!]
KYLE
I was just playing baseball with my friends -
MOTHER
[Why didn’t you go to violin class? Do you know how hard I worked to get the money to send you?]
KYLE
I told you, I hate the violin! I want to play baseball -
She slaps him again.
MOTHER
[Ungrateful, worthless - ]
KYLE
I’m thirteen, Mom! I can do whatever I want!
MOTHER
[If your father could see you now. Talking back, being disrespectful - ]
KYLE
Yeah, well, he’s dead!
He cowers again, expecting her to slap him. She does not.
He looks up, and they look at each other.
KYLE
Mom?
She shakes her head, and turns away.
MOTHER
[Fine. Go play baseball.]
KYLE
(to audience)
Seven years later, and she still barely knows any English. I didn’t expect her to -
MOTHER
[I didn’t understand his exact words. But I knew what he was saying. That expression on his face.]
KYLE
Every day, my mother and I grew a little more distant.
MOTHER
[I look at him, and don’t know who I’m looking at. My boy that was once a part of my own body.]
KYLE
And I played baseball. I ate macaroni and cheese, ham sandwiches. Learned all the lyrics to N.W.A. songs -
MOTHER
[I heard the ugly music that came from his room, and wondered how we could be so different. His father used to play the violin for me, so beautifully - ]
KYLE
I dyed my hair. Wore wife-beaters and baggy pants. Pierced my eyebrow and my ears - I looked good.
MOTHER
[He changed his beautiful black hair to an ugly yellow. Wore pants that didn’t cover his butt, and pierced his ears like a girl.]
KYLE
Mom didn’t understand. I told her, it was the style - everybody was doing it -
MOTHER
[But sometimes - I look at him, and I see my husband in him. My husband was a handsome man, and Tae-hu is, too.]
She touches his face.
MOTHER
[If only he didn’t dye his hair . . . ]
KYLE
I got a lot of attention. And not just - from girls.
(pause)
There was this white guy, on my baseball team. Greg.
(swoons)
He had the most incredible abs. We’d been eyeing each other for a long time during practices, and one day, in the locker room - well, you can imagine. We started going on dates and stuff. And then -
MOTHER
[Shameful - dirty - ]
KYLE
Stop it!
She tries to slap him, but he stops her by grabbing her hand.
KYLE
I’m not thirteen anymore; you can’t just smack me around!
His mother pulls away, and begins sobbing.
MOTHER
[No. No.]
Kyle looks away.
KYLE
I know you’re upset, but please. I’m your son, right? You love me unconditionally -
MOTHER
[Who is this boy? My son?]
KYLE
Even if you saw me kissing a boy.
MOTHER
(shaking her head)
[Tae-hu, my beautiful Tae-hu . . . ]
KYLE
(screaming)
I’m gay!!!
His mother does not answer. This worries him.
KYLE
Do you understand? Do you get what I’m trying to say?
Still no answer.
KYLE
Tell me you love me, Mom.
MOTHER
[I don’t understand.]
KYLE
Tell me you love me.
MOTHER
[I can’t understand.]
KYLE
Why won’t you tell me?
They look at each other, for a long time.
MOTHER
[Leave.]
KYLE
What? What’s that you’re saying?
She points to the door. He looks at it, then at her. He shakes his head.
He turns from her, to the audience.
KYLE
And that was that. I left that house, and never went back to it again. You know what gay people call one another? Family. And that’s eventually what my friends became . . . My only family.
(pause)
I think maybe all along, even when I was a kid . . . I knew I was gay. To me, it was a clear-cut choice. Be white - and embrace a culture that would be more accepting to who I was and who I fucked - or be Korean - trapped in a vision of what my mother wanted me to be. The oldest son of the oldest son . . . bearer of the family line.
He turns, and looks at his mother.
KYLE
Sometimes, I hated her. Her refusal to accept anything American, her clinging to traditions that were only ghosts, in my mind.
(pause)
And other times, I wish I only had the words to tell her -
He walks over, and touches her on the shoulder. She turns, and looks at him.
KYLE
(broken Korean)
Sarang-he, umma. Nadu nul sarang-he.
BLACKOUT
THE END
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Nina Ki is a Korean writer based in Los Angeles. She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Dramatic Writing, and is currently part of a writer's workshop called The Undeniables (www.theundeniables.org). “Broken English” was first written and performed as a larger production called Available Demand that ran at the Zipper Factory in New York in 2008. It has since been given readings by Mixed Phoenix Theater Company at BarOnA in New York, and at the Celebration Theater in California.
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