New York audiences will begin seeing Red, Chay Yew’s play about family, politics, art and China’s Cultural Revolution, Mar. 2 at Manhattan Theatre Club.

The new work, making its East Coast premiere at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre through Feb. 7, will open at MTC (after previews) Mar. 23 with the same cast and creative team as in New Haven.

Red had its world premiere Aug. 28-Sept. 26, 1998, at Seattle’s Intiman Theatre under Lisa Peterson’s direction, with a different cast.

The Long Wharf-MTC Red is directed by David Petrarca and tells of a best-selling author returning to her native communist China to research her new book. Reconnecting with her past, she enters the world of the Beijing Opera during the Cultural Revolution -- with harrowing results.

The cast for Red includes Jamie Guan, Jodi Long, Liana Pai, and Ric Young. The production team includes Michael Yeargan (sets), Anita Yavich (costumes), James F. Ingalls (lighting), and Jeff Carlson and Rob Milburn (sound). Original music is by Rob Milburn. Yew is the author of Wonderland, Porcelain, The Courage to Stand Alone (based on letters of Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng) and A Language of Their Own, which had a run at the Public Theater a few seasons back. A member of New Dramatists, New York Theatre Workshop’s "Usual Suspects," and the Dramatists Guild, Yew is working on commissions from the New York Shakespeare Festival (Glitter) and the Cornerstone Theatre Company (Beautiful Country). Yew is also the director of the Asian Theatre Workshop at the Mark Taper Forum and the Resident Director at East West Players.

Manhattan Theatre Club’s Stage II is at 131 W. 55th St. Tickets are $36. For information, call (212) 581-1212.

-- By Kenneth Jones
and Sean McGrath