Directed by Sherry J. Yoon. A Gateway Theatre production, by special arrangement with Goodman Theatre in Chicago. At the Gateway Theatre on Saturday, October 15. Continues until October 22

“As long as someone remembers, it always remains true.”

Lauren Yee’s ambitious, complicated, and complex King of the Yees is full of thought-provoking, beautiful lines like this, moments that ring true even as we know that sometimes these are lies we tell ourselves about legacy, tradition, family, and belonging.

Yee’s script explores big questions and universal concepts by making them hyperspecific and personal, as she turns the spotlight on herself and her father, Larry, and their relationship. King of the Yees stages a play within a play set on their home turf of San Francisco’s Chinatown. The play opens with two actors portraying Lauren and Larry, when the “real” Larry (a warm and engaging performance by Gateway Theatre’s artistic director, Jovanni Sy) interrupts the show, breaking the fourth wall and causing the “real” Lauren (Andrea Yu) to lose control of her cast.

Larry is a local legend who knows everything and everyone, and is always sure of a deal or a discount through friends of friends. He’s proud of his heritage and the long line of Yees who have survived to the current generation. It’s this pride that makes him a faithful fundraiser for and backer of California state senator Leland Yee, but it’s also his old-fashioned ways and obsession with holding up tradition that make his daughter wince with disdain and pity.

Lauren warns her father that the senator has been using him for 20 years, but Larry disagrees, saying his proximity to the senator puts him in a position of power. When the senator is arrested for public corruption and gun trafficking (which actually happened in 2014), Larry is crushed, and the blows keep coming when Lauren tells him she’s moving to Berlin and bowing out of their trip to their ancestral village in China.

The three other cast members, whose titles are Actor #1, #2, and #3, play everybody from the “fake” Lauren and Larry to rogue audience members to ancestors. Milton Lim is a compelling presence, and a scene between Raugi Yu and Donna Soares involving accent coaching is jaw-droppingly funny.

King of the Yees isn’t a new story, not really. Most kids get embarrassed by their parents at some point, and then eventually learn the hard way that maybe their parents’ ways have some merit. But what’s inspiring is the way Yee breathes new life into this familiar motif, upending the audience’s expectations at every turn, pivoting from real-life events to commentary to surrealist, ghost-whisperer territory. King of the Yees looks messy and chaotic. But only at first. In actuality, it’s an intricate, playful nest that satirizes western stereotypes of Chinese culture while lovingly sending up some actual, traditional Chinese customs, as well as providing sharp, insightful commentary about racism, gentrification, assimilation, sexism, love, and familial obligation.