April 1, 2007

Philip Kan Gotanda, After the War at ACT Theater

After the War explores what it means to be an American who is forced to operate outside the center of American society. The historical backdrop of post internement camp Japantown brings together a mix of folks on the margins: a No-No Boy jazz musician, a wealthy Japanese entrpreneur/crook, an unemployed Black man from the Deep South, a Russian prostitute, a poor Oklahoma woman and her slow younger brother. . . the effect of which shows that even in the end, the power that is practicised within these communities can be trumped at any time by the central powers that be.

While steeped in a specific historical situation of a very specific San Francisco neighborhood, the questions Gotanda poses are relevant and on point to contemporary American society, as questions of power, patriotism, race, and inner city planning are all still very current in today's conversations.