"Sisters Matsumoto" at Center Repertory Company

Center Repertory Company photo by www.mellophoto.com

Starting off a more normal weekend of theater-going for me: three plays to see this weekend, starting with one I've been looking forward to, Sisters Matsumoto at Center REP in Walnut Creek. I've been meaning to check out Center REP for a while, but they seem to do more mainstream musicals and fewer straight plays. But this one I knew I wanted to see. First, it fits thematically with a recent show, Beneath the Tall Tree, I saw recently at TheatreFIRST. So it's a chance to do a little comparison. And second, it is directed by a friend, Mina Morita, who always does a good job.

The Play

Much like Tall Tree, this show focuses on events following the return of Japanese-American citizens who returned from internment camps after World War II. Where the TheatreFIRST show was more of a personal story, Sisters Matsumoto deals with both the story of a family trying to return to their family home in Stockton and also some of the larger issues surrounding internment. I should also add that Tall Tree was a first effort by young playwrights, where Sisters Matsumoto is by a well-established writer, Philip Kan Gotanda, so it's not unreasonable that the latter is a more complex work.

The family matters seem relatively straightforward: the Matusumoto family had to sell off their family home in town when they were relocated, but kept a family farm outside town and leased it out. They return to find the farm neglected and defaced, the storehouse vandalized. But they resolve to restart the farm, even though two of the three daughters are now married, and the third is looking for a husband, having lost her fiancee in the war. In addition to the sort of expected difficulties of returning to a town after several years away, facing racism and extra hatred stirred by wartime animosity and propaganda, they also must deal with people they lost (including the family patriarch) and some unexpected twists that arise as they try to resettle.

In addition, they surface some long-simmering conflicts, including a marriage whose arranged underpinnings are called into question in the family's new circumstances, questions about loyalty (both to family and to country), and issues about the role of Japanese-American soldiers in the war, including the much-decorated 442nd. Indeed, it is ultimately these larger questions that create the more interesting conflicts in the play.

My only criticism of the play per se is that it's a bit inconsistent in its flow. Some of the dialogue between the characters is really terrific, and that makes some of the scenes really realistic and powerful. And then sometimes one of the characters will just kind of go off on a little soliloquy, giving a whole exposition on how they feel and what they are wondering about, half directed to the audience while the other character(s) just sort of stand around. It's a tough call for the director, since it really wouldn't work to just freeze the action and focus on the speech as some kind of internal monologue, but at the same time, it doesn't really work in the flow of the play, either. Ultimately, it's more of a distraction than anything, but it feels as if Gotanda didn't quite finish writing some of the scenes, and just left some rather long, expository texts in that perhaps could have been worked into dialogue.

But overall, the play is a powerful piece of writing, the issues are good, meaty ones, and there are a number of different characters who are quirky and interesting.

The Production

The set (designed by Andrea Bechert) is visually impressive (and the photo above doesn't do it justice at all). The farmhouse is represented only in part, and the outlines of the roofline and some windows and doorways stand for the rest. It's really good looking, and Kurt Landisman's lighting design is really effective at moving emphasis around the stage, passing time, and enabling indoor and outdoor scenes without actual scenery changes. Altogether, it's visually wonderful.

The acting is a bit uneven at times, with some of the actors being a bit stiff, particularly early on. Everyone seemed to settle in later (or maybe I got used to the differences). Some of it might also be caused by the writing issues described above. Some of the actors seemed to handle the long, digressive speeches more effectively than others. And some of the characters are just more interesting. Chiz (Melissa Locsin) and her husband Bola (Tasi Alabastro) are probably the most interesting and fun characters. Henry Sakai (Alexander M. Lydon) brings a kind of calming influence as one of the only non-family members. And Hideo (Ogie Zulueta) counters that with a kind of suppressed, angry intensity.

As things unravel in the second act, the individual characters seem to both stand out and pull together, which in many ways is a good summary of the experience the play is trying to convey. The whole community has been torn apart, and now as they try to piece together what they can of their lives and their community, they find that they are both less cohesive than they used to be, but all the more in need of collective action. The debates about assimilation and racism are pointed and realistic, and certainly reflect attitudes I have seen transmitted through my contemporaries (who would be the children of the generation portrayed here).

I should make one comment about the casting, too. I had trouble believing the three sisters were really sisters initially. Their ages just seemed at odds with the actions and histories described. Eventually I just went with it, but the makeup, posture, and body language of the three sisters just didn't credibly convey that they were only a few years apart in age.

Overall

It's a powerful play, beautifully staged. It runs for one more week, and it's well worth the trip out to Walnut Creek to see and experience it. I would like to have seen a more cohesive acting performance, but even so, the play itself and the staging are quite good.