HOUSTON – A common struggle children of immigrant parents share is balancing cultural identity with American values. Because we go to U.S. schools and try to fit in as much as possible, celebrating what makes us different (for a while at least) wasn’t always appreciated.

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In recent years, there’s been a shift to listen to more voices we wouldn’t normally hear from. Representation continues to grow, especially in the Asian American community. We still have a lot of work to do and voices to hear from, but stories like The Heart Sellers, which opened at Stages on Jan. 31, are another way barriers are broken down and audiences can reflect on things we thought we knew.

Written by Lloyd Suh, The Heart Sellers focuses on two newly arrived immigrants Jane and Luna in the 1970s, who cross paths at a grocery store on Thanksgiving. The title is also a play on The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act.

Through their conversations over (lots of) wine, Jane and Luna bond over their shared love of music, annoyance at their husbands, and the life they left behind to come to the United States. The majority of the play is a heavy, albeit tongue-in-cheek dialogue, but the crux of it all is how much of one’s heart is “sold” when coming to America.

In other words, how much does one have to give up to move and adapt to life in a new country?

The play hits a sensitive note for Mai Lê, who plays Luna, when both characters note how diluted their culture will be with children growing up in the U.S. and the resulting generational gap.

“My parents are Vietnamese refugees, and I’m American-born,” Lê tells me in a written interview. “And Luna has this deep, reflective monologue where she talks about her future children and how they’ll be ‘more American’ than she is. It’s such beautiful writing, and it’s a moment that breaks my heart, because I am a witness to that type of relationship – because I am that ‘American child.’ And I know how isolating and hopeless it can feel to be separated by culture differences and language barriers.”

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“But what pulls people out of isolation are our communities,” she continued. “And Lloyd does such a beautiful job at painting how there is joy to be found when you, and everything around you, is hurting.”

The entire play runs for about 90 minutes with no intermission, but the time flies by with edgy, but charming dialogue. Both actresses Lê and Alexandra Szeto-Joe, who plays Jane, share a strong chemistry and successfully bring the audience with them on this journey of identity and curiosity.

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At the end of it, the audience is left to reflect and entertain their own imagination about what happens to both women. We obviously won’t know, but to get this far and have two newly arrived women in the 1970s is a different type of agency that is often overlooked because ordinarily they’d just be typecast as someone’s mother. Even Lê admits this while talking about her fascination with playing Luna.

“She reminds me of my mom—but not just my mom, but most immigrant women,” she said. “By the nature of their experiences, immigrants live multiple lives—they have lived in different countries, they know multiple languages, and they are now living between two different cultures. There’s a complexity and a richness to their being.

“Luna is written to be so full of joy, but there is also this despondency that she’s masking and fighting from being homesick and experiencing loneliness and culture show,” she added. “It’s a challenging thing, to show her journey in its fullness, but it’s also been a really rewarding thing to do.”

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I empathize a lot with what Lê described and am reminded of arguments with my own mother wondering why there were certain things we held on to when she left her home country. I’m not as stubborn anymore, but it does make me wonder how much of my own values were “transactional” and if the identity conflicts that children like me experience are just buyer’s remorse.

Tickets to “The Heart Sellers” at Stages are available through February 23. To learn more, visit their website.