Humour meets dark history in Sansei: The Storyteller, April 27 to 29

Kunji Mark Ikeda explores Japanese-Canadian internment through light comedy in the solo coming to Vancouver

By Gail johnson

Kunji Mark Ikeda, Sansei: The Storyteller. Photo by icandy

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts presents Sansei: The Storyteller on April 27 at 2 pm and on April 28 and 29 at 8 pm at The Shadbolt’s Studio Theatre

THE TAGLINE FOR Sansei: The Storyteller might be a little confounding; the show is described as “a lighthearted look at the Japanese-Canadian internment”.  

Indeed, Kunji Mark Ikeda, who created, wrote, and performs the solo, uses humour to approach the topic of the federal government’s forcible expulsion and confinement of approximately 21,000 Japanese-Canadians following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. His connection to the story is personal: his grandparents were separated during the widespread imprisonment, which began in 1942; they had Ikeda’s father once they were reunited.

“It seems like this paradox, but for me, in finding how much that generation…went through and how, consciously or not, they worked to not pass along hate, to not pass along these negative emotions, to not harbour resentment, especially in the next generation,” Ikeda told Stir in an interview about the work last year. “For me, it was safe material. 

“Being able to bring it to life and to light meant the opportunity to tell it in a way that, in my research, I didn’t see anyone else doing: by having access to comedy to talk about it,” said Ikeda, artistic director of Calgary’s Cloudsway Dance Theatre.  “It felt almost like a superpower; I had this opportunity available to tell it through humour. We’ve been conditioned to sit back and accept it passively through media and news, and here’s the doom and gloom. This show is very consciously humorous and engaging in really specific ways to draw in the audience.”

Now, Sansei: The Storyteller is coming to The Shadbolt, the piece a blend of dance, theatre, physical storytelling, historical audio, and family memories. It has won a Best of Fest award at the Calgary International Fringe Festival as well as nominations for performance and choreography from the Betty Mitchell (Calgary Theatre) Awards.

Ikeda has trained with Denise Clarke of One Yellow Rabbit, is a member of the DSW Dance Action Group, and has taught at the University of Calgary and the Rosebud School of the Arts.

Tickets and more information are here.  

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