When a young man returns to help his father sort through his recently deceased grandfather’s belongings, family secrets come back to haunt the men. The discovery of a worn photo of a picture bride drudges up memories that refuse to be erased. The spirit of the woman in the photo forces herself onto the young man’s consciousness in a desperate attempt to be remembered before the last trace of her life on earth is swept away. She forces the young man to relive the story of her arrival to Hawai’i, and her subsequent murder in the sugarcane fields. As the young man unearths the truth about his grandfather’s past, he is haunted by his own guilt, and made to confront his father about his abusive tendencies. The family’s history of violence eventually comes to rest on the young man’s shoulders and he is forced to confront demons all his own. Utilizing the structure and conventions of traditional Noh theatre, the play blurs the line between memory, reality, and fantasy to examine the hereditary nature of abuse and destruction.
- Cast Size: 5M, 1F, 4+ Either
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
When Matriarch Fumi Sasaki develops Alzheimer’s in 1998, her daughters have a handful: Dakota tries to kidnap her, Nori gets a shrink, Emi flees to Africa. Their father Tak, once a successful actor, gets temporarily lost on a train to Maine. After Fumi dies, secrets emerge from the shrink, Minister and family ghost. Flashbacks show the parents romance, and the roots of Fumi’s mental stresses, started at a concentration camp for Japanese Americans in WWII, when both were wed to others. Nevertheless, at her memorial, the family celebrates Fumi as the ‘rock’ who enabled their transition into east coast society.
- Cast Size: 3M 4W
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
Review Asian/Pacific Islander Plays.