On Wednesday, Baltimore theater Centerstage premiered to the public its production of the critically acclaimed play, Snow Falling on Cedars.
The play is a theater adaptation of David Guterson’s novel of the same name though the story lines are commendably similar.
Those familiar with the novel will not be disappointed; all of the most familiar and memorable scenes are there as well as those smaller details that could more easily be forgotten.
The play explores the emotional and social tension between Caucasian Americans and Japanese Americans following the devastation of World War II. Kubuo Miyamoto (Kenneth Lee) is accused of the murder of his childhood friend, Carl Heine (Danny Gavigan). His wife, Hatsue (Laura Kai Chen), and her childhood lover, Ishmael Chambers (Timothy Sekk), also become involved. Snow Falling on Cedars is the story of not only what connects them, but also what drives them apart.
The play opens dramatically with the theater completely dark. Suddenly, the lights come on and the audience sees a woman and a man, standing far apart, staring at one another.
Though what connects them is unknown, it is nonetheless felt. The play begins when they are no longer together on stage; the play builds upon this separation. The audience waits until the end of the show to find out how this point has been reached.
Snow Falling on Cedars takes places between the 1940s and 1950s without any of the 12 actors leaving the stage.
The audience is able to grow up with Hatsue, watching in delight as she falls in love with Chambers despite her mother’s warnings against white men.
The audience watches as the peaceful strawberry fields where she works with the other Japanese-Americans are disrupted by the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
As Hatsue’s father is suddenly taken away to be questioned by the government, she and her mother are forced into internment camps, and Hatsue must bid Ishmael a tearful goodbye.
Though their separation tugs at the heartstrings, it is sorely needed, as the internment brings Hatsue to her future husband Kabuo.
As Hatsue and Kabuo walk through the internment camp quietly sharing their dreams of owning a strawberry farm and starting a family, Ishmael Chambers fights the Japanese, losing an arm in the process.
His time in war leaves him bitter and lonely, unable to join the world again once he returns from the horrors of war. Although he tries to reconnect with Hatsue, she has already moved on with Kabuo.
Kabuo, however, had not completely moved on from his own past. When he was a child, his father attempted to buy seven acres of land from the Heine family.
However, due to the internment, the Heine family allowed Kabuo’s father to miss two payments. The father died before he finished the payments and the land was sold.
Kabuo has always seen the land as rightfully his, which is later held as evidence of a motive for killing Carl Heine. The story is a fascinating insight into the human condition as it questions how far emotions will take a person and how far prejudice can carry on in the court of law.
The original music and sound by Ryan Rumery adds an enticing richness to the play, forming complex scenes on the simple square stage.
Even with few props or costume changes, one can understand the changes in space and time through costume designer David Burdick’s talent, which is undeniable: there are twelve actors playing thirty-nine characters, without ever leaving the stage. Thus the costume changes and music have to be ingenious, and ingenious they were.
Above all else, the acting is the most highly commendable part of the production. For many of the actors, Snow Falling on Cedars is their first show with Centerstage, but all of them have extensive acting credentials.
Their talent shows, especially in the ability of many of the actors to transition into different roles without confusing the audience.
The most impressive quality of the cast however was their resemblance to the people that we all come across every day.
When the actors spoke, they were not actors, nor were they even characters. They were believable people, speaking in a manner that was normal for whatever situation they were in. It was not like witnessing acting. It was like witnessing real life.
The most impressive actor of the show was undeniably Laura Kai Chen, as Hatsue Miamoto.
Chen was able to play her role as a ten-year-old, sixteen-year-old and thirty-one year-old woman: three different stages of life, yet always with the same energy.
Chen was brilliant in her ability to connect with the emotions that her character was experiencing, whether they be excitement, love, fear, dread or anguish.
It is because of Chen’s incredible acting that the audience is able to believe the evolution of the dynamic character of Hatsue, a feat not all actors could accomplish.
Snow Falling on Cedars will run though April 3 in Centerstage’s Pearlstone Theater.
Tickets are available online at www.centerstage.org, or by calling the Box Office at 410-986-4000.
Ticket prices range in price from $10 to $55.
The price is well worth it, as Snow Falling on Cedars is an emotional and beautiful play that will leave you feeling moved and forces you to think about the relationships built throughout a lifetime.
