Jawnts: From N. Korea to U.S.

To most Americans, North Korea is a shadowy nightmare realm, an island of blackness in the sea of light that is industrialized East Asia. Mia Chung doesn't shy away from the totalitarian horror in her play

You for Me for You

, the second reading in the Asian Arts Initiative's "The Way Home" series, but expends just as much time on the oddities of life in the United States from the perspective of a North Korean immigrant.

The play follows two sisters who attempt to flee their deprived life in the countryside for, well, anywhere else: China, South Korea, America. Only one makes it, somehow, to New York City (a result Chung says is fanciful, although it adds to her play's surreal tone). This play is most effective when depicting the main character's slowly solidifying command of English: When Americans speak to her it initially sounds like gibberish to the audience, but it becomes more comprehensible as her understanding of the language improves.

"My understanding of North Korea always came through my parents, or Western media, a simplistic portrait," says Chung, whose parents are from South Korea (she was born in America). In some cases, she says, those who have left remain loyal to the ideology and nation that raised them, and she wanted to show how difficult it might be to move from the Hermit Kingdom to an advanced capitalist society. "I used magic realism to amplify the confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea because the reality would be so surreal."

The reading is part of a series directed and organized by Rick Shiomi, a veteran of the Asian American theater community (he established Minneapolis-St. Paul's Mu Performing Arts). The artist in residence at Interact Theater sees the readings as a way to showcase local Asian American actors and national playwrights, who are often still honing their scripts. (Chung is tinkering with her play even though it has already been shown at D.C.'s Woolly Mammoth.)

The series explores the meanings of home for Asian Americans. Shiomi narrowed the field from 30 scripts to the four that are alternatively being read at the Asian Arts Initiative and Interact Theater. Next up is The Special Education of Miss Lorna Cambonga, at Interact on April 21.

You for Me for You will be read at 7 p.m. Monday at the Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St., Philadelphia (www.asianartsinitiative.org). The performance is free, though donations will be accepted. Chung will answer questions afterward.