Hold These Truths, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, through December 31. 617-585-5678 or lyricstage.com
Could the Constitution become "a scrap of paper" without constant vigilance by Americans? Gordon Hirabayashi (1918-2012) warned about such a nightmare scenario after savoring the 1987 overturning of an unjust 1942 criminal conviction connected with his ancestry and a decades-long struggle with discrimination.
In 2007 Japanese-American actress-writer Jeanne Sakata documented his ordeal as well as his indomitable spirit and undying optimism in a 100-minute no-intermission one-person play "Hold These Truths, "originally entitled ""Dawn's Light: The Journey of Gordon Hirabayashi." On the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066-by which Franklin Delano Roosevelt interred about 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry-most of them American citizens, Hirabayashi's true story proves as timely as ever-especially at a time of disturbing travel bans and deportations. Benny Sato Ambush, a gifted African-American director ("Fences" at Gloucester Stage Company, among others) with Japanese ancestry of his own, is giving the play's Hub's premiere at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston a staging both poignant and resonant.
As Sakata's play begins, a sign stage left introduces a Quaker Friends meeting where member Hirabayashi chronicles his personal journey as well as both the darkness of prejudice and the contrasting light of understanding and activism. An elegantly spare backdrop designed by Shelley Barish with stylish Japanese paneling helps to introduce theatergoers to the now 65 year old professor (who taught for many years at Canada's University of Alberta) addressing the meeting.
Speaking of his family roots, Hirabayashi fondly recalls his late parents-his lettuce crate -packing father's laugh and his mother's would be politician's dynamism. At the same time, he also remembers "Japs Keep Out" signs outdoors and theater indications for "White Gentiles Only" in orchestra seating. Later Hirabayashi speaks of loyalty oath demands and such cautionary advice as not being conspicuous and not speaking Japanese in public places.
Not surprisingly these details and even more serious ones point to similarities between Japanese inhabitants in America, Hopi Indians and Jews. Designer Jonathan Carr projects an image of the camps where Japanese residents were interned, and Hirabayashi brings up the treatment of Jews in Germany.
A Hopi Indian, citing slaughter and betrayal by the American government of promises made to his tribe, contends that the Constitution was "not written for you or me.'' Along the way, Sakata through Hirabayashi peppers her play with revealing insights about judges and the evolving court system-especially with regard to the treatment of Japanese persons living in America.
If Hirabayashi is clear-eyed about a tough reality, he is nevertheless not fatalistic. Tellingly, he declares, "I seek to live as though the ought to be is." His optimism proves remarkable rather than delusional. After all, his criminal conviction is reversed (though not soon enough); he does complete a doctorate in sociology and enjoys a fulfilling and happy marriage.
Michael Hisamoto wonderfully captures Hirabayashi's combination of incisiveness and good nature, so much so that he seems to lose himself in his portrayal. He catches the easy delivery of the professor as well as the unassuming nature of this disarming protagonist. Hisamoto's infectious smile during lighter moments and his lively gesturing throughout make this a transformative performance.
Khloe Alice Lin, Gary Thomas Ng and Samantha Richert serve as kurogas, kabuki stagehands that enhance and complement Hirabayashi's rousing narrative so skillfully thanks to Jubilith Moore's nuanced and poetic choreography that they truly become properly inconspicuous.
Ambush and Hisamoto beautifully embrace the intimate Constitutional lesson that is ''Hold These Truths." Trump and his diversity-opposing ilk should take notice.