Caught By Christopher Chen: Play Summary

The play that I had decided to read was Caught by Christopher Chen. The region in which the play was written in is the United States, and was developed and performed in 2014, and was published online on February 1, 2016. Caught is episodic in nature, however, both stories in the play are considered comedic and somewhat mysterious. In summary, Caught is about two Asian American individuals who have used their appearance to deceive and manipulate many.

Caught was fueled by uncertainty and tension due to the two main characters, Lin Bo and Wang Min, wishing to manipulate many to believe their story or narrative. There were two different stories being told in Caught. The story revolving around Lin Bo, Joyce, and Bob was set in a meeting between
all three characters about the integrity of the story presented by Lin Bo.
Lin Bo presented a story in which he was imprisoned in Beijing due to an “imaginary protest.” The inciting incident would be that Joyce and Bob view many inconsistencies in Lin Bo’s story, therefore, leading them to believe that Lin Bo embellished his story about being imprisoned. As Joyce and Bob progressed with the questioning, Lin Bo began admitting to the many inconsistencies within his story. Finally, Lin Bo reveals that he was lying about the story; Lin Bo never went to prison in Beijing, in addition, Lin Bo is not from China, Lin Bo claimed he is actually American and goes by the name Fred Goldstein. In the next story, we have two characters, Wang Min and Susan, in which they discuss issues concerning appropriation and truthfulness. The inciting incident occurs when Wang Min brings up the idea of Americans appropriating stories in order to gain profit, specifically Mike Daisey appropriating stories from factory workers in China. This causes Wang Min to share with Susan, the idea that appropriation is harmful to many and could cause individuals to have a misguided notion of what a culture really consists of, while the idea is genuine, Wang Min progressively
confuses Susan with her narrative as she continues. Finally, Susan has had enough since Wang Min reached a point in which she began insulting, and confusing her by stating many vague ideas and claiming Susan was ignorant. The overall denouement would be that both Wang Min and Lin Bo were in accordance with each other and purposely tricked and manipulated the individuals they came in contact with, in order to participate in a theatrical art form based on deceit.

There is a total of 5 characters in Caught. The two main characters are Lin Bo and Wang Min. The supporting characters would be Joyce, Bob, and Susan. Lin Bo and Wang Min could be considered the same since both wished to purposefully deceive those who came in contact with them by portraying Chinese characters. What stood in the way of Wang Min and Lin Bo would be the possibility of those who they contacted with catching on to their lie. Wang Min and Lin Bo are friends and share a common interest, which would be deceiving others. Joyce and Bob could also be considered similar characters since they both wanted to find out whether or not Lin Bo was being honest with his story. However, the only thing getting in their way would be Lin Bo’s unwillingness to say the truth. Joyce and Bob are both workers for the New Yorker, Bob is an editor and Joyce is a writer. Joyce knew of Lin Bo by taking his story into account and sharing it on her platform, prior the events that had occurred in the play. The final character, Susan, is a performer and co-curator at the Mahna Gallery, the setting where Susan and Wang Min have their discussion. Susan just wishes to interview Wang Min about her art and her beliefs. However, Wang Min’s intentions are not to have a purposeful discussion with Susan, but to play with her instead, meaning that she intends to derail from the conversation and insult her. Susan knows of Wang Min through her art and the discussion at hand.

Caught was overwhelmingly entertaining and left me impressed. What I enjoyed the most was that Lin Bo and Wang Min perfectly deceived the individuals they talked with as well as the audience. I was amazed at the unraveling of each story, however, I enjoyed the straightforwardness of Lin Bo’s interaction with Joyce and Bob more so than Wang Min and Susan. The characters were very expressive and seemed lifelike, meaning that at certain points you might forget you are watching a play. If I were given the option to attend a production of Caught, I would definitely attend. While reading the play is fine, I would most rather view the actors’ facial expressions and listen to the tone of their voice when reacting to many of the outlandish things that Wang Min and Lin Bo say. Overall, I would recommend this play since it does provide a decent amount of humor and could be considered straightforward.