A Solo Show Traces Three Generations of Leaving

Alex Xander Luu performs Three Lives alone, tracing three generations of his own family across a refugee journey. He works through humour and movement rather than straight testimony, which keeps the material from settling into a single register. The whole show runs on one body and one voice, with no set to lean on. MOCA hosts it as part of its performance programme, inside a museum whose permanent collection covers the same migration history from a different angle.

You come in off Centre Street into a building Maya Lin designed around a central courtyard, then head to the performance space. The room is small and the seating is close. People arrive early and walk the galleries first, where garments and documents from the collection sit under low light. Seeing the collection before the show changes what you hear in it, and the museum leaves time for that. The audience skews local and stays to talk afterwards.

The performance runs on the evening of Thursday, September 17 at 215 Centre Street in Chinatown. Book ahead. Museum performance spaces are small and this programme draws a following. Arriving an hour early gets you the galleries as well as the seat, which the ticket price already covers. It fits people who want first-person history told from a stage, rather than a wall text and an audio guide. If you wanted a light night out, this is not that.