Forgiveness At The Stratford Festival
The current efforts toward “truth and reconciliation” in Canada address the outrages visited upon the country’s First Nations peoples. Forgiveness, by Hiro Kanagawa at the Stratford Festival’s Tom Patterson Theatre, does something similar for Canada’s Japanese minority.
Forgiveness is based on Mark Sakamoto’s memoir about his Japanese grandmother Mitsue (Yoshie Bancroft) and his Canadian grandfather Ralph (Jeff Lillico), both of whose young lives were irreparably scarred by the Second World War.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese-Canadians of British Columbia, both immigrants and the native born, were rounded up and shipped to Alberta to either live in camps or work on farms as virtual slaves. Their boats (many were fishermen) and other property were confiscated and, after the war, sold to “real” Canadians for laughably small sums.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Canada, Ralph and other patriotic young men enlisted. Ralph wound up in Hong Kong where he was among the first Canadians to face the Japanese. Captured, he endured four years in unspeakable conditions. It is to the credit of this production that nothing is done to downplay or soften the reality of the brutality of his captors.
Of course many nations that can rightly pride themselves on the riches of their high culture are nonetheless capable of committing ghastly crimes against humanity. Think the transatlantic slave trade, the Great Hunger, Dachau, Abu Ghraib, among many others.
Canada’s treatment of its Japanese minority, while arguably less brutal that what Ralph and thousands of other POWs experienced, was nonetheless a blot on Canada’s conscience. And while the mistreatment of POWs ended with the war, their PTSD lingered. The maltreatment of Japanese-Canadians continued for many years. It would seem that Mitsue and Ralph had ample reason to despise each other
Forgiveness, the memoir, recounts the often surprising ways in which life goes on, people adapt, come to grips with evil, and sometimes achieve, yes, forgiveness.
Forgiveness, the play, attempts to recreate this sprawling story in the narrow confines of the Tom Pat. Thanks to director Stafford Arima, and his artistic associates – Lorenzo Savoini (sets and costumes), Kaileigh Krysztofiak (lights), Cindy Mochizuki (illustrations and animations), Sammy Chien (projections), Allison Lynch (music), Olivia Wheeler (sound design), Anita Nittoly (fight direction), and Stephanie Graham (choreography) – it succeeds to a remarkable extent. Yes, it’s a long list, which underscores the magnitude of what this production sets out to achieve.
Thanks to a cast of twenty, which frequently seems like the proverbial cast of thousands thanks to doubling, tripling, even quintupling, the action moves swiftly and efficiently over the course of twenty or thirty years.
The staging of battle scenes, aswirl in green smoke, is harrowing and the depiction of the brutality of internment can be stomach-turning, so be forewarned. The effect is almost cinematic thanks to that long list of artists above.
Forgiveness is also blessed with some remarkable performances. It’s hard to believe that Lillico played the broadly comic rock-star-like Shakespeare in Something Rotten! last season. The role of Ralph requires him to traverse a punishing emotional and physical arc and he hits all the notes.
Bancroft is endearing as Mitsue as she navigates girlhood, the harshness of the war years, and the challenges of raising two very Canadian boys.
Michael Man turns in another rock solid performance as Hideo, Mitsue’s husband. Playwright Kanagawa takes on two roles. As Kato, the sadistic but philosophically conflicted commandant of Ralph’s POW camp, he is chilling.
I have not read Sakamoto’s memoir so I don’t know what, if anything, has been omitted or glossed over.
It would seem that the devoutly Christian Ralph was able to put the past behind him simply by reading the gospel of Mark 11:25.
“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” Really?
The dinner at which Mitsue and Hideo meet Ralph and his wife because their kids are in a serious relationship struck me as rather saccharine. Surely that evening would have been far more fraught for everyone. And why doesn’t Ralph, who learned the language as Kato’s slave, speak at least a few words of Japanese?
Fortunately, these niggling questions did nothing to decrease my admiration for what Arima, his cast, and his collaborators have achieved in Forgiveness. The whoops of admiration that erupted the moment the lights went out at the end preceded one of the few truly genuine standing ovations I’ve witnessed in recent years.
Forgiveness continues at the Tom Patterson Theatre through September 27, 2025, For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Stratford Festival website.
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