Thanksgiving comedy is sweet but underbaked

Lloyd Suh’s ‘The Heart Sellers’ charms while it struggles at South Coast Rep.

- CHARLES MCNULTY THEATER CRITIC

IMMIGRANTS Jane (Narea Kang), left, and Luna (Nicole Javier) become fast friends in "The Heart Sellers."

(ROBERT HUSKEY South Coast Repertory)

The issue of immigration has been front and center on our stages this fall. Playwrights are responding not to the headlines (drama plays the long game) but to the human toll of entrenched prejudices and legislative negligence that have turned American politics into a blood sport.

Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” which ends its run at the Mark Taper Forum on Sunday, and Rudi Goblen’s “littleboy/littleman,” which had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse last month, bring us closer to characters who came to the U.S. for opportunity and find themselves trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare that has relegated them to the shadows of their adopted homeland.

Adding to this list of immigrant-themed work this season is Lloyd Suh's “The Heart Sellers,” which opened last weekend at South Coast Repertory. The production is directed by Jennifer Chang, who staged the play’s world premiere at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 2023 with the same two-person cast.

Nicole Javier and Narea Kang reprise their roles in a drama that, like Suh’s “The Far Country” (a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2023), views the hot-button issue of immigration through the lens of history.