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Tetsuro Shigematsu's one person play, Empire of the Son, previews on Thursday, Nov. 8 and opens Nov. 9.
Photo by Raymond Shum
Gateway's latest offering: a father's life and legacy
Published 1:09 PDT, Fri October 26, 2018
Former CBC radio host, Tetsuro Shigematsu
says, “In my heart I knew I would always comeback to theatre and to telling my
father’s story in particular.”
And tell his father’s story he does in the
upcoming play, Empire of the Son, at Richmond’s Gateway Theatre.
“I had this realisation, in my whole life, I
had never had a single conversation beyond, ‘Pass the soy sauce,’” he says.
It’s not that they didn’t have contact,
Shigematsu says, “He was always there at home, but when he sat at the dinner
table, he was always listening to his shortwave Walkman to radio reports from
all over the world.”
“When my father’s health began to falter
several years ago, I had this moment where I just sort of checked in with my
self; was I ok with him dying and not knowing who he is?”
More than self-interested curiosity propelled
Shigematsu, “I have two kids. If they are going to be anything like me, they
are going to start wondering about their identity, who they are. They are going
to ask me questions about their grandpa and I didn’t want to say I didn’t know.”
And the story that his father told was
amazing and enlightening; from the reason for leaving a promising life back in
Japan to his world as a BBC radio announcer-producer in London. Shigematsu’s father experience many of
the major events of the twentieth century, a real life Zelig.
For example, “He told me he was there when
Marilyn Monroe sang happy birthday to JFK (US president Kennedy) and as a young
boy, he stood in the ashes of Hiroshima.”
Empire of the Son traces not just a father-son
relationship but a history of both the world and the Japanese boy who fell out
of love with Japan, in love with Somerset Maugham, and the man he became.
Shigematsu’s one-person play is both intimate
and cinematic with dramatic devices to draw the audience in to the world of the
father, the son, and the son’s children.
Threaded through the play is the cautionary
tale to all adult children not to leave these conversations too late.
“My father ended up dying two weeks before
the show opened. We thought he had a lot more time than that,” says Shigematsu.
Empire of the Son begins Nov. 8 and runs
through Nov 17. Tickets available through Gateway Theatre.
The last two runs of this play were
sell-outs. “It’s nearly sold out
at Gateway. If people are interested they should jump on getting tickets,” says
Shigematsu.
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