The Tashme Project (reflections)

I've seen the Tashme Project twice. Mom, Kathy and I saw it at the MAI in its original production and I've just seen it again (2018/11/18) at the Centaur Theatre. Matt Miwa and Julie Tamiko-Manning have added some movement and physical attributes to the presentation of some of the characters. The stooped gentlemen that Matt presents and elderly ladies that Julie acted, add to the believability and bring the characters to life.

Let me back up and provide some background. The Tashme Project is a verbatim play created by Matt and Julie based on a hundred interviews that they conducted with Japanese Isseis and Niseis. This is a labour of love. Matt and Julie met in Ottawa while working on a theatre project. They discovered that they were both hafu and after some conversation, they realized that another common bond was the Tashme internment camp. They both had relatives that had been interned there. As it happens my Dad was interned there as well.

This production is simple and heartfelt. Julie and Matt transform themselves into 80-year old people and allow us to look into what it was like to be in Tashme, what happened before and after as well. The set is simple, a table and two chairs. The props just as basic, but there are a lot of tsuru on the set. I wondered if Matt and Julie folded them all.

Seeing The Tashme Project the first time opened up my Mom and we had many discussions about her time in New Denver and what Dad told her about Tashme. And Mom met a friend that she had not seen since those days at the show.

Perhaps it's because I'm becoming an emotional old fart, but I found both performances extremely emotional, there were moments of humour, sadness and you felt that you understood why there was such reluctance to talk about the internment days.

In the lobby, there is a poster with the map of the camp and a list of people interned there (last name only). It seems that my Dad was in building 1022 at the edge of the camp, perhaps this is why there are so many stories of him escaping to fish and roam the woods. There is also an Uno in another bunkhouse, but I'm not sure if that person is related.

Thanks to Matt and Julie for making this happen.


Japanese terms:

Hafu: Someone who is half Japanese

Issei: People who emigrated from Japan

Nisei: The first generation of Japanese descent who were born in Canada

Tashme:

Tsuru: Crane, in this context, origami cranes