Sisters Matsumoto |
Review by
Willard Manus THREE SISTERS, JAPANESE-AMERICAN STYLE LOS ANGELES-- Philip Kan Gotanda's SISTERS MATSUMOTO is a mixture of memory play, family drama and social protest. Directed by Chay Yew for East West Players, SISTERS MATSUMOTO is set in Stockton, CA. right after WW II. Returning to the family farm after four years of internment in an Arkansas concentration camp, the Matsumoto clan attempts to rebuild its old life. Once prosperous and important, the family has been ground down by history and racism's grindstones. The patriarch died in the camp and is now nothing but a ghostly presence (Ken Takemoto) watching over his offsprings' struggles. The long-neglected fields and orchards have turned to dust, the houses have been plundered and splintered. |
An Anglo neighbor,
Mr. Hersham (Thomas Boyle) shows up and offers to The once proud and
wealthy Matsumotos can only look back sadly and Although the play is well acted, Yew's direction is on the deliberate, even ponderous side and he hasn't been careful enough with some of the actors' diction. Time may smooth these problems out, though, and they aren't serious enough to dissuade anyone from seeing SISTERS MATSUMOTO. (At East West Players,
120 Judge John Aiso St. through Feb. 17. Call |