Cambodian Rock Band

Cambodian Rock Band is a play by American playwright Lauren Yee that follows the Cambodian genocide through the lens of a musician father during the regime and his daughter in present-day. The play, featuring original music by Dengue Fever, premiered in 2018 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, before premiering Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre Company on February 24, 2020.

Plot

The play takes place across two time periods, the 1970s and 2008. In the latter, we meet a Cambodian-American lawyer named Neary, who is working to prosecute leaders of the Cambodian genocide. When her father, Chum, who himself fled the country, arrives unexpectedly to urge her to return home, she's caught between justice and security.

The play also flashes back to the 1970s, during the height of the genocide, seeing Chum as a musician in a surf rock band. The regime targets artists and intellectuals, and eventually Chum and his band are imprisoned in S-21, a notoriously brutal prison run by the ruthless Duch. As the story escalates, we see Chum emerging as one of the only survivors of the prison and the power music played in his survival.

Production history

Yee was inspired to write the play based on her love for the surf-rock band, Dengue Fever. The play first premiered at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California in 2018, directed by Chay Yew and starring Joe Ngo as Chum, Brooke Ishibashi as Neary/Sothea, Daisuke Tsuji as Duch, Abraham Kim as Rom/Journalist, Raymond Lee as Ted/Leng and Jane Lui as Pou. The production also featured original music by Dengue Fever. The production opened on March 4, 2018 and ran through March 25, 2018. The play received positive reviews, with BroadwayWorld calling it "stunning" and a "tragic piece of history," and Reappropriate lauded the play as "mesmerizing" featuring a "powerhouse cast." For the production, Lauren Yee won the Horton Foote Prize, Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, along with a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and a Craig Noel Award.

Following its positive reception, the production was announced to transfer Off-Broadway as part of Signature Theatre Company's season. Yew returned as director, with Ngo, Lui and Kim reprising their roles, and Francis Jue as Duch, Courtney Reed as Neary/Sothea and Moses Villarama as Ted/Leng. The production opened on February 4, 2020, originally scheduled to run through March 22, 2020, but shuttered early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Off-Broadway production received mixed to positive reviews, with some criticism for the play's shifts between comedy and historical drama. Ben Brantley's review in The New York Times praised the cast's performances, though noted the writing struggles to "comfortably reconcile the radical shifts in style and mood." A review in Variety praised the production's ambition and use of music, with criticism of the modern-day plot, calling it "thin", though praising the "rousing finale." Nonetheless, the production was nominated for two Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play, two Drama League Awards, and an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. Jue won a Lucille Lortel Award for his performance as Duch. A cast album was released in May of 2020 through Yellow Sound Label.

The play has since been produced at regional theatres including Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2023 and in Los Angeles by the East West Players in 2025.

Cast and characters

Accolades

2018 Los Angeles production

2020 Off-Broadway production