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| Left to right: Francis Jue, Linden Tailor, James Seol. Photo courtesy Kevin Berne and Theatreworks. |
Very few activities reflect the human spirit and its desire
for transcendence like the precision and craft of cuisine. In particular, the
culture built around sushi and its construction, as revealed to broader America
in the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi,
is slow, grueling, and demanding of perfection. Kimber Lee’s tokyo fish story, directed at
Theatreworks by Kirsten Brandt, uses both character interactions and broader
structure to contrast the art of sushi with the demands of the real world.
In a way, tokyo fish
story is two plays at once: The poetic saga of sushi master Koji (Francis
Jue), as his restaurant weathers a changing Japan, and the realist drama of his
son Takashi (James Seol), who quashes his own culinary innovations out of
fealty to his father. The merger of the two serves not only as a multifaceted
look at a complex family relationship, but gives Koji the vulnerability he
needs to become more than just a strict father.
Seol’s Takashi is the standout performance in the
Theatreworks production. Though second apprentice Nobu (Linden Tailor) makes
fun of him for being almost as uptight as Koji, in reality Takashi masks the
pain of not knowing whether his father will ever see him as an equal. Takashi
is a different person to every character in the play, and Seol portrays him
with the beautiful emotional delicacy required for the audience to understand
this.
Nobu’s role is meant to push Takashi into action and to
provide a dose of levity. A lot of plays have similar “jester” characters, many
of whom are loud and into pop culture (Star Wars in this case). Nobu serves
this role while genuinely caring about his job and his mentor. While Tailor
never tones down his intensity, he still finds ways to show his dedication to
his work.
Wilson Chin’s set flips the conventions of the proscenium
theatre on its head to meet the varying needs of the production. Normally, the
stage is used to create a two-dimensional effect like a television screen, but here,
the multi-tiered wooden framing and use of suspended sculpture create a theatre
space that can be unified or split into narrow zones as the direction demands. This
creates room for the actors to maneuver, but still feels cramped and
uncomfortable like a tiny kitchen.
tokyo fish story at
Theatreworks is a look into a life profoundly different from our own, where a three-decade
apprenticeship is not unexpected, and one can not notice a neighbor has been
gone for two years. It’s a play that observes multiple lives traveling at
different speeds, and how someone “irrelevant” can still be incredibly
important. Rather than critiquing the pace of the current generation, Lee is
simply sitting at the counter and asking us questions about how things will
change.
