{"id":396,"date":"2008-09-25T19:58:31","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T19:58:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=396"},"modified":"2008-10-20T02:36:05","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T02:36:05","slug":"randall-david-cooks-sake-with-the-haiku-geisha","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/library\/reviews\/randall-david-cooks-sake-with-the-haiku-geisha\/","title":{"rendered":"Randall David Cook’s Sake With the Haiku Geisha"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW<\/p>\n

JET Alum Randall David Cook\u2019s SAKE WITH THE HAIKU GEISHA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02)<\/em><\/p>\n

(Winter 2006 Issue of the JETAA NY Newsletter)<\/span><\/p>\n

Randall David Cook\u2019s<\/strong> new play Sake with the Haiku Geisha<\/em>, produced by the Gotham Stage Company at the Perry Street Theatre, is a must-see for all past and future JET participants.\u00a0 Early reviews of the play were written by critics who had little understanding of Japan, much less the experience of actually living in the country.\u00a0 What emerges from the play, in a fine production by Alex Lippard<\/strong>, is not a superficial conflict of cultural values but a more profound assessment of the psychological scars left by cross-cultural contact.<\/p>\n

Each one of the play\u2019s vignettes follows a central character, three of whom are JET participants.\u00a0 Charlotte Linscott (Emma Bowers<\/strong>), Parker Hamilton (Jeremy Hollingworth<\/strong>) and Brianna MacInnis (Fiona Gallagher<\/strong>) are all Assistant English Teachers who have brought their own uncertainties and ghosts with them to Japan.\u00a0 The initial comical culture shock moments, such as mistaking Santa Claus for a crucified \u201cSanta Cross\u201d, soon evolve into a deeper confrontation with inner demons and emotional insecurities.\u00a0 Charlotte\u2019s story is told in a series of letters to her grandmother in England.\u00a0\u00a0 Her reasons for coming to Japan are never made clear and her prim and proper pose may be masking a painful memory back home.\u00a0 Parker is a closeted gay American Southerner who finds that Japan is not the best place to disclose his sexual preference.\u00a0 The combined pressures of being the local gaijin<\/em> and a closeted gay man are hilariously exposed in a dream sequence, in which a class of antagonistic females throw painfully embarrassing questions at him.\u00a0 Of these stories, the most poignant is that of Brianna, a Canadian who constantly reminds her students that Canada is, in fact, a sovereign nation and not part of the United States.\u00a0 Her promiscuous affair with a Japanese teacher becomes a desperate attempt to escape the memory of her dead boyfriend.\u00a0 Like many JET participants, Charlotte, Parker and Brianna are young college graduates embarking on the first years of their adult lives.\u00a0 The often painful road to self-discovery and growth is magnified by the strange cultural surroundings. Brianna wishes that she could have one day in which she doesn\u2019t feel like she\u2019s \u201con Mars\u201d.\u00a0 All three characters must confront their stark naked fears and insecurities far from the comfort of their home countries.<\/p>\n

The last two vignettes concern Japanese nationals: the English teacher Ichiro Hashimoto (David Shih<\/em>) and a local girl named Sumiko Matsuhira (Angela Lin<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0 The impetus for Hashimoto\u2019s story is a fascistic school parade in which the students salute a Hitler float.\u00a0 Brianna is offended and Ichiro tells her not to blame the students for Japan\u2019s historical amnesia. The resulting confrontation sends him into a retelling of his grandparents\u2019 eyewitness account of the bombing of Hiroshima.\u00a0 Historical memory is thrust to the present as the cast members stoically recount the horrible effects of the bomb.\u00a0 Cook seems to suggest that the legacy of the bomb has permanently scarred the Japanese collective unconscious.<\/p>\n

Sumiko\u2019s story is the most conventional of the five and is structured like a self-contained one act play.\u00a0 Despite her mother\u2019s warnings, she embarks on a love affair with an Irish expatriate.\u00a0 Jeremy Hollingworth plays him well – his bumbling Japanese is at first cute and charming but hints at a less than genuine character.\u00a0 Sumiko\u2019s initial distrust dissolves into full-fledged love and she bears him a child.\u00a0 Ultimately, she is abandoned and advised by her mother to raise the child in Kyoto.\u00a0 The child grows into the titular geisha, who connects the five vignettes by reciting Haiku poems.\u00a0 As the child of Japanese and Western parents, she is literally the connective tissue that holds the play together.<\/p>\n

Director Alex Lippard\u2019s staging manages to mix both Japanese and Western theatrical conventions, much like Amon Miyamoto\u2019s staging of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s Pacific Overture<\/em> did last season.\u00a0 Like the latter show, the actors perform on a sparse wooden stage, suggesting Noh theatre.\u00a0 What makes Sake With the Haiku Geisha<\/em> a more effective production are the characters which populate that stage.\u00a0 Pacific Overtures<\/em> suffered from an overly didactic and academic approach that left little room for empathy.\u00a0 Randall David Cook has populated his show with real people, whose innermost thoughts are laid bare before the audience.\u00a0 The excellent company of actors should be commended for bringing Cook\u2019s script to life.\u00a0 According to the program, this is the first production by the Gotham Stage Company.\u00a0 They have provided a service for all JETs and non-JETS alike in launching their organization with this powerful play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW JET Alum Randall David Cook\u2019s SAKE WITH THE HAIKU GEISHA Reviewed by Lyle Sylvander (Yokohama-shi, 2001-02) (Winter 2006 Issue of the JETAA NY Newsletter) Randall David Cook\u2019s new play Sake with the Haiku Geisha, produced by the Gotham Stage Company at the Perry Street Theatre, is a must-see for all past and future […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":59,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-396","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PkZ7m-6o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/396\/revisions\/735"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}