Written by David Henry Hwang, Yellow Face at Kings Cross Theatre is a semi-autobiographical play that features the playwright himself as the protagonist. Set in America over the course of the 1990s, Yellow Facefocuses particularly on the inception, creation, release and subsequent failure of Hwang’s 1993 play Face Value, and everything that follows.
When we first meet Hwang (Shan-Ree Tan) he is a celebrated, Tony Award-winning playwright. Upon hearing the news that the upcoming Broadway play Miss Saigon, will star a white, British actor in the starring role (of an Asian man), Hwang writes a public letter of protest against the casting.
The uproar that ensues is told through the media headlines from various publications and, combined with the pressure of trying to write a new play, Hwang starts to consider if perhaps he should have just kept his mouth shut.