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Mother of Exiles

Fri 14 Nov - Sun 21 Dec
Fri Nov 14
-
Sun Dec 21

Tickets now on sale

By Jessica Huang
Directed by Jaki Bradley
World premiere
Peet’s Theatre

In 1898, on Angel Island, a pregnant Eddie Loi faces deportation amid America’s tightening immigration laws. A century later, her great-grandson Braulio, through his role in the Miami border patrol, inadvertently conjures her spirit — unleashing a witty, opinionated ancestor. By 2063, their descendants, beset by climate catastrophe, embark on a perilous oceanic journey seeking sanctuary. From detention to diaspora, Mother of Exiles follows a single family’s century-and-a-half odyssey — tracing their flight, fight, and the futures they dare imagine. Jessica Huang’s multigenerational triptych blends historical drama with supernatural encounters, weaving moments of surprising humor into a powerful portrait of belonging and resilience.

Mother of Exiles received a Venturous Playwright Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center in St. Paul, MN, supported by Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation.

Mother of Exiles was developed in The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work.

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Michele Selene Ang in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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Camila Moreno and Michele Selene Ang in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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Ricardo Vázquez and Michele Selene Ang in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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Camila Moreno and Ricardo Vázquez in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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(front) David Mason and Monica Orozco; (back) Michele Selene Ang and Ricardo Vázquez in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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Emma Kikue in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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Ricardo Vázquez and Michele Selene Ang in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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(front) Monica Orozco, David Mason, and Emma Kikue; (back) Ricardo Vázquez and Michele Selene Ang in Mother of Exiles. Photo: Kevin Berne
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Production information

  • Runtime: Approximately 90 minutes, no intermission
  • Age recommendation: Suitable for ages 13 and up
  • Stage effects advisory: Use of fog, haze, and strobe
  • Content advisory: Contains mature themes and content, and includes brief moments of dialogue in Cantonese and Spanish without translation
Liner notes from David Mendizábal

Last season in Mexodus, Nygel D. Robinson asked the audience, “what are you choosing to do with the days your ancestors have earned you?” Sitting in the Peet’s Theatre watching the world premiere of Jessica Huang’s Mother of Exiles, I can’t help but reflect on that question and the ways Jessica and her play embody direct responses.

As a second-generation child of an interracial marriage, Jessica uses her voice as a playwright to bring to the stage a uniquely American story woven from cultures meeting, colliding, loving, and remaking one another through multiple generations of one family. Formally, Mother of Exiles is structured as a triptych, where each act of the story takes on a distinct genre shifting in aesthetic, tone, and style to capture the way that generations of families evolve over time. Tackling issues of immigration, climate change, and questions of lineage and legacy over 160 years, Mother of Exiles is a love letter to the sacrifices it takes to build a life in a new land and the choices we make every day to honor and advance the steps our ancestors have taken for us.

Jessica pays tribute to her own family history by beginning the story on Angel Island, where her ancestors were detained when they arrived in this country. The day that the cast and creative team toured the barracks at the former Angel Island Detention Center, Ed Tepporn, the Executive Director of the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, asked us what feelings were coming up as we stood in those rooms. Jessica’s answer was “pride.” Pride for the ways in which her ancestors were resilient and resisted through art by inscribing poems on the walls, both to be remembered and to assert their existence and place in history. In many ways Jessica has continued that tradition as a playwright, telling a story that reminds us of our past, challenges us to wrestle with our present, and seriously considers our future as a society and a people.

As you watch Mother of Exiles and meet Eddie Loi and her family, I invite you to take in how names are passed down, and perhaps also claimed, as a form of care and resistance. Eddie’s journey alone has her navigating multiple names in order to beat the systems designed to keep her out. Over centuries, families have fought to carry their names forward, from names being reshaped or erased at Angel Island or rewritten on Ellis Island and stripped from their history, creating fissures between families. For the Loi family, taking root in the United States is not just a matter of survival — it is an act of insisting that the Loi name, and all it holds, will echo through future generations.

For me, this play is a reminder that names carry stories, and stories are how families endure. As I reflect on Nygel’s question, Jessica’s play, and my own career as an artist, namely a storyteller, I think about the responsibility and history I carry with my name and the choices I make every day to continue to honor the sacrifices my ancestors made. From the stories I choose to tell, to the way I carry my grandfather’s name tattooed upon my arm, I like to believe that helping bring this play to you is one small way of carrying that forward.

Thank you for joining us!
David Mendizábal

 

Important dates

  • Masks required: Nov 16, Nov 23 (matinee and evening), Nov 25, and Nov 30 (matinee)
  • Closed captioning: evenings Nov 20, 21, 23, 25, and 26; and every matinee through Dec 18
  • Audio description: Dec 20 matinee
  • Postshow discussions: Dec 4, Dec 9, and Dec 12 — guided by members of Berkeley Rep’s artistic team
  • Docent-led postshow discussions: after all matinees

 

Events and extras

  • Virtual Artist Spotlight with Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation: In an online event on Dec 3, playwright Jessica Huang and AIISF’s Director of Education, Danielle Wetmore, discuss the creation of Mother of Exiles and the history that informs the play.
  • Community Dialogue with Jose Antonio Vargas and Jessica Huang: Join us Dec 5 after the performance for a conversation with playwright Jessica Huang and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas.
  • Theatre Explorers: While you enjoy the Dec 6 matinee, your K–5 student can dive into an exciting, age-appropriate workshop just next door at our School of Theatre! Professional teaching artists lead theatre games and hands-on art projects designed to spark imagination. Registration is $35 per child; advance reservation required.
  • Community Dialogue with Danielle Wetmore, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation: Join us on Dec 11 for a postshow dialogue with representatives from AIISF, offering deeper historical and cultural context connected to the world of the play.
  • Experience: A Cage Built of Jade: From Dec 11–14, explore A Cage Built of Jade, a pop-up installation in Michael’s Second Act bar that immerses visitors in the poetry and history of detention at the Angel Island Immigration Station.

Who’s who

Cast

Michele Selene Ang* | Eddie Loi
Kina Kantor* | Sister
Emma Kikue* | Missionary/Sophia/Mimi López-Loi & Others
Amy Lizardo* | Mother
David Mason* | Guard/Mick/Henry & Others
Camila Moreno* | Tata/Claudia López & Others
Monica Orozco* | Midwife/Sarge/Karina López-Loi & Others
Ricardo Vázquez* | Modesto/Braulio Loi
Wayne Dexter Wong | Grandfather
Cassidy Brown* | Understudy Guard/Mick/Henry & Others
Kina Kantor* | Understudy Eddie Loi, Missionary/Sophia/Mimi López-Loi & Others
John R. Lewis* | Understudy Modesto/Braulio Loi
Amy Lizardo* | Understudy Tata/Claudia López & Others, Midwife/Sarge/Karina López-Loi & Others

 

Creative team

Jessica Huang | Playwright
Jaki Bradley | Director
Riw Rakkulchon | Scenic Design
Haydee Zelideth | Costume Design
Reza Behjat | Lighting Design
Jake Rodriguez | Sound Design and Original Music
Nicholas Hussong | Projection Design
Earon Chew Nealey | Wigs, Hair, and Makeup Design
Dani O’Dea | Fight Director and Intimacy Consultant
Adi Cabral | Voice and Dialect Coach
tbd casting co. / Stephanie Yankwitt, CSA | Casting
Kristy Bodall* | Stage Manager
Anthony Lopez | Assistant Stage Manager

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

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Peet’s Coffee

Season sponsor

I Fly OAK

Sponsor

The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation

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Berkeley Rep is wheelchair accessible and offers assistive listening devices (ALDs), closed captioning, and audio description for the hearing-impaired.

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In the 2025/26 season, masks are encouraged for all performances, but are required in our theatres on select Sunday and Tuesday performances.

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