Review: World Premiere Play FUGU Recounts a World War II Immigration Tale Full of Danger and Romantic Intrigue

The story of FUGU, a world premiere play written by Howard Teichman and Steven G. Simon which Teichman also directs and produces, takes place at a time just prior to the United States' entry into World War II. Suggested by true events, it recounts the efforts of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who assisted in getting 6000 Lithuanian Jews rescued from the clutches of the Nazis and relocated to Kobe, Japan, and the choices which had to be made to ensure their safety.

Colonel Nohiro Yasue (Ryan Moriarty), Japan's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is stationed in Kobe where the newly settled Jews have established a community. But their safety may be short-lived since the Gestapo's Colonel Josef Meisinger, a.k.a. The Butcher of Warsaw (the menacing David Preston), is a Nazi liaison at the German Embassy in Kobe, intent on seeing that no Jews escape alive. How can they possibly be saved by their Japanese benefactors when Japan has already signed over their allegiance to Germany?

Col. Yasue devises a scheme with the objective of seeing to it that Japan and America do not come to blows. The plan is called "Fugu," named for the Japanese delicacy fugu, or blowfish, which is so poisonous that the smallest mistake in its preparation could be fatal. The same can be said for the Colonel's plan as one false step will prove fatal to him as well as the Jewish community he has worked so hard to welcome into a safe environment, away from the Eastern European ghettos.

Yasue, mistakenly believing that President Roosevelt is Jewish, selects the leader of the Jewish community, Dr. Avram Kaufman (Warren Davis), to be his emissary to contact high-ranking American Jews in Washington, Wall Street and Hollywood to convince the U.S.A of Japan's good intentions toward the Jews, hoping his plan will avoid Japan's entry into a bloody international war. But of course, Meisinger, intent on eliminating the Jews of Kobe, reminds Yasue of Japan's treaty with Germany and Italy, and demands his cooperation. But Yasue is above all a man of honor, and the Jews are under his sworn protection. He finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place with no way to escape his own doom. And the same can be said of Kaufman who knows no one in America and has no idea how to accomplish the deadly fugu plan.

Complicating matters for Yasue and Kaufman is the fact that Kaufman's beautiful daughter Sarah (the most modern-thinking Rosie Moss) and Yasue's top aide and most civil Japanese-Yiddish speaker Setsuzo Kotsuji (mild-mannered Scott Keiji Takeda) are falling in love, embarking on a forbidden romance in both their cultures. The two are the most "humanistic" of all the characters and you will find yourself hoping they can overcome the odds. But how can a Jewish woman and a Japanese man find love amidst The Shadows of war, and how can their love possibly survive? Can the brave and honorable Yasue, Kotsuji and Kaufman thwart the machinations of the murderous Nazis

It's a most interesting tale, extremely well told by Howard Teichman who is also the Artistic Director of West Coast Jewish Theatre, the group producing FUGU at the Pico Playhouse. no doubt the story Teichman has brought to the stage has deep personal significance for him, as it will for many audience members, especially those of us with Eastern European family roots who lost so many of our ancestors due to Nazi hatred. And given today's atmosphere of turning away refugees needing asylum in the United States, this play all the more relevant to our time.

Others of note in the cast are Peter Altschuler as Rabbi Shlomo Shapira, the kind, religious leader of the new Kobe community who struggles with but chooses to uphold Torah's laws. Marcel Licera portrays Captain Yosuke Matsuoka, a leading Japanese officer who dislikes protecting the Jews due to the threat their community poses to Japanese nationals.

And of course, there must be a Jewish yenta in the town, and fitting that bill to a tee is Bryna Weiss as Mrs. Dovitch who longs to be a "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as soon as possible. She feels the need to listen in and comment on every bit of information, hoping to learn how she may participate in the fugu plan to make her way to America. There are tender, as well as humorous, scenes between her and young Sarah during which she sympathizes with how the forbidden couple love each other, even though she agrees that they cannot ever really be together.

Rounding out the cast are Kaz Matamura and Matt Gottlieb who open the show with juxtaposed traditional dances from both communities, symbolically expressing the great differences and similarities in the two cultures as their steps combine and then bitterly split apart. It's a spot-on set-up for the struggles about to be seen in the world premiere play, FUGU, with excellent technical credits all around from Kurtis Bedford evocative set design to period-perfect costumes by Shon Le Blanc.

Danger, romance, war, intrigue and the grand sweep of historical events combine to create the compelling story that is FUGU, onstage at the Pico Playhouse, 10508 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064, through March 19, 2017 on Fri. & Sat. at 8:00pm, Sun. at 3:00pm. Reserved seat tickets are $40, seniors $37.50, student with I.D., $25. Reservations may be made by calling 323-821-2449 on online at www.wcjt.org.

Photo credit: Michael Lamont

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