Tale of dark history lacks teeth on stage
The Komagata Maru Incident (out of 4) Written by Sharon Pollock. Directed by Keira Loughran. Until September 24 at the Studio Theatre, 34 George St. E., Stratford, until Sept. 24. stratfordfestival.ca or 1-800-567-1600 The Komagata Maru incident is a dark piece of Canadian history that entirely contradicts the “sunny ways” image of Canada today — it was a political event that demonstrated xenophobia, culturally-specific immigration loopholes and explicit demonstrations of white supremacy. Looking at the basics of the SS Komagata Maru controversy of 1914, there couldn’t be a more relevant piece of history to revisit amid today’s surge of neo-Nazism, refugee crises, and racist policies and attitudes. And the Stratford Festival is doing so with The Komagata Maru Incident, Sharon Pollock’s 1976 play documenting the events that took place in the Port of Vancouver more than a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, this play with incredibly contemporary issues ends up being one of the festival’s most outdated productions of the season.
At the start of the First World War, 376 immigrants from India arrived in Vancouver on the SS Komagata Maru, a Japanese freighter, only to be barred from entry by Canadian immigration officials intending to limit the number of residents of a visible minority in the city. As citizens of the British colony of India, the passengers were believed to have the right to seek safety in another country of the Commonwealth, but racist policies such as head taxes and voyage requirements kept them from disembarking from the ship. Challenges to the policies were ruled down by the British Columbia Court of Appeal, and after two months in limbo in the harbour, with little food or supplies for the hundreds on board, the Komagata Maru returned to India, where those on board were seen as revolutionaries and faced persecution.
Pollock uses one character to represent the experiences of those trapped on board the ship, simply named Woman (played by Kiran Ahluwalia, also the production’s composer), who sits alone on the freight’s bow in Joanna Yu’s set.
Woman has a few short bursts of dialogue to describe the deplorable quality of life on the ship and also recites a fable about a crow. But mostly she sings — very beautifully, her musical elements are easily the most entrancing and moving pieces of this play — but ultimately, Woman is a symbol of a cultural other, more mythical than real. She sings through the suffering, she protects her son, she anticlimactically walks off the stage when the ordeal is over.
This theatrical presentation of her story skims the surface of the victims of this incident, and in director Keira Loughran’s staging, remains physically above the action, a conceptual and distanced figure, keeping the issue at bay even when it’s at our front door.
Instead, Pollock creates drama by following William Hopkinson(Omar Alex Khan), an immigration official who negotiated with those on the ship, as well as those challenging the federal politics restricting Indian immigration. Though Pollock attempts to humanize him through self-hatred and internalized racism, Hopkinson’s actions are both too technically complex (orchestrating a ring of Sikh informants) and thematically obvious (using racial pejoratives for and threatening violence against his Chinese girlfriend, Evy, played by Diana Tso). Pollock surrounds Hopkinson with other immigrants — Georg, a German (Tyrone Savage, with an indecipherable accent), Evy, a brothel owner, and Sophie (Jasmine Chen), Evy’s employee — which adds a layer of complexity to how these Vancouver residents accept or disown other immigrants, rejecting or participating in dominant racist ideologies. But this remains at surface level, splitting them into “good” and “bad” camps and giving them little further character development or complexity. Hopkinson, an unsympathetic leading character, is at least given a worthy adversary in T.S., a ringleader character that pushes the antiimmigration policies forward. In Loughran’s production, T.S. is played by Quelemia Sparrow, a First Nations performer who begins the play in traditional garments, and ceremoniously changes from this into the ringleader’s signature top hat and red-and-gold coat.
Adding an Indigenous voice into this incident revolving around land, borders, displacement and racism is amuch-needed update from the1976 version and Sparrow’s performance has a charming Trickster quality. Unfortunately, Loughran trips up her theatrical choice by over-choreographing T.S.’s speeches. In another way, the satirization of T.S.’s blatantly xenophobic views pierces the gravity of the situation.
As the final play in Stratford’s 2017 season, and with its opening performance delayed by weeks, The Komagata Maru Incident tells a part of Canadian history that should be better known today as we reckon with similar issues, challenges and ideologies. Unfortunately, this production doesn’t have the time or strength to do it justice.