Nothing is the Same 

Reviewed by Vanessa Cate 
Sierra Madre Playhouse 
Through March 4^th  

December 7th, 1941 is and shall remain infamous as the date that Japanese forces executed a surprise attack upon the U.S. naval base of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Just before 8 a.m., hundreds of Japanese fighter planes showered bombs, bullets, and torpedoes on the base, crippling or destroying hundreds of airplanes, battleships, dry docks, and air fields. The attack left more than 2,400 people dead, and 1,000 more wounded.

The Japanese plan to destroy the Pacific Fleet in a surprise attack failed, however, instead provoking the United States into officially entering into World War II, changing the tide of the war and the course of history.

Little more than two months later, on February 19^th, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the deportation and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Through the guise of national security – the act was more a symptom of racist hysteria and a sort of belligerent, ignorant patriotism – more than 110,000 Japanese–Americans were forced into camps.

Y York’s Nothing is the Same centers on four children who live very close to the Pearl Harbor base. One day (December 7^th, 1941), these children are innocently playing marbles when the attack strikes. In the following months, people are rounded up and taken away, and the children struggle to understand what is right and what is wrong. Mits (Yeng Kong Thao) had up until this point been a child proud of his Japanese ancestry, aspiring to live by the code of the samurai. But his friends George (Melvin Biteng), Bobi (Asia Ring), and Daniel (Tristen Kim) aren’t sure whether they can trust him, if he and his family might be Japanese spies, or if interacting with him might even implicate and endanger them as well. 

Though the play has a heavy premise, York’s script skirts around most of the situation’s true gravitas. It features a lot of talking and very little action. Not just talking, but children standing and talking in Pidgin English. I actually enjoyed the Pidgin English as it was one of the more immersive qualities of the show and kept my mind engaged – but the childish dialogue, while sometimes sweetly authentic, was mostly too shallow, cute, and dull.

Director Tim Dang does his best with the script and actors provided to him. Although not proficiently executed by all, Dang and Hula Coach Kelsey James Kapono Chock’s choreography woven into the stagnant marble games helps to enliven the play somewhat. The story enjoys a tidy ending hinting at a simple, happy resolution. But such an ending pays a disservice to the harrowing content, so steeped in bigotry and paranoia.

Nothing is the Same was produced in part to be included in Sierra Madre Playhouse’s Field Trip Series, which hopes to bring educational theatre art to students.

As Dang writes in his Director’s Note, “’Talk story,’ one of the great oral traditions in Hawaii, is the act of sharing history, ideas, opinions, and the events of the day with other people at any time and in any place. In early times, there was no censorship and children heard the same stories their parents and grandparents heard.” Would that this play were approached in the same, mature way.

Happy endings aside, York laid the groundwork for a brutal arc in Mits’s obsession with Bushido and his ownership of a Japanese short sword, which was never dramatically realized. While I am not necessarily convinced that Mits should have committed seppuku, if it were a gun instead, Chekov would have had a few words to say about leaving it unused.   

Still, this is an important part of history to tell and examine, not only that we remember, but that we may avoid making the same ugly mistakes again. Added to the noble pursuit of bringing theatre to patrons and students alike, Nothing is the Same can be forgiven for at least some of its shortcomings.

*Note: This show is double-cast. This review is based on the performances of the “Makai” Cast.

Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre, 91024; For schedule visit www.sierramadreplayhouse.org. Running time: Approximately 65 minutes, no intermission.