Wednesday, February 05, 2025
‘I wanted to theatricalize the taste of MSG’: How an S.F. play explores racism in food
Datebook: Ami already has enough to worry about with her family and food. In sixth grade, a peer told her her bento boxes “smelled like farts.”
But then in “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play,” a double-whammy of a discovery blindsides her. In family meals, her mom uses monosodium glutamate — the much-maligned flavor enhancer — and her grandfather helped invent the substance.
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The SF Playhouse is probably my favorite theatre company in the Bay Area. Over winter break I saw their production of Waitress and in the past I’ve seen their productions of Guys and Dolls, My Home on the Moon, and the Play that Goes Wrong. Their acting and tech are typically both phenomenal so I was really excited to see a CMU PTM post about this show! A show about the scapegoating of a certain group over something blown way out of proportion that is completely overlooked in relation to those with higher social status is especially relevant in so many ways particularly now. I also had no idea that the story of the show was partially based on the author’s family history, which helps to contextualize the show’s synopsis for me. Also I really appreciate the promotional image posed as The Last Supper with a bunch of MSG-containing foods.
This show sounds like a really amazing play. The villainization of MSG is really something odd, and it honestly wasn’t until the past couple of years in my life that I learned that it wasn’t some sort of harmful chemical but just another flavoring, since I had been exposed my entire life to the misguided claims that surround MSG. I think that it is really cool how the playwright is basing this play off of her own life. Her quote “wanting to theatricalize the taste of MSG” really stuck out to me as defining the experience of watching this play. Based on that, the character who plays the “new awesome friend” archetype being named Exotic Deadly (which I think is a really cool idea to take that name from an article about MSG), and the Last Supper vibes and staging shown in the images, it sounds like this play has a lot of interesting magical realism vibes surrounding it that would make a super engaging and entertaining watching experience.
I find this quite a comedic and eye catching title, but honestly a good prompt for creating a show; visualizing a taste. It's unfortunate that MSG has such negative stereotypes surrounding it that are really only based in racist stereotypes. The fact that even then its called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” is only that much more disappointing because not only is it stereotypical it its really just false entirely. The idea of creating a play to destigmatize MSG is a really interesting idea though, to format the explanation of something in a methodology that will be easier to understand or be accepted by a larger audience will hopefully benefit in debunking some individual’s preconceived notions about the flavor enhancing seasoning. I know the suggestion at the end to repackage MSG under a new name as “condensed Japanese seaweed crystals” but unfortunately I think a lot of people are so gullible that it would genuinely really work.
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