Review: The Story of THE KOMAGATA MARU INCIDENT Gets Lost in this Underwhelming Production at the Stratford Festival

In 1914, hundreds of British subjects of the Sikh faith were not allowed off of the boat they traveled to Canada on, and denied entry at the Vancouver harbour based on xenophobia and racist immigration policies. This story of the people aboard the Komagata Maru is an important part of Canadian history to be remembered and an important story to tell. The story is told on stage this season at the Stratford Festival in THE KOMAGATA MARU INCIDENT written by Sharon Pollock and directed by Keira Loughran. Unfortunately, the choices made in the way the story is told, cause the power of its message to not resonate nearly as much as it should be resonating at a time when it is so incredibly relevant in society.

This production, staged at the Studio Theatre consists of a cast of six people. Of the six, only one of them, "woman" portrayed by Kiran Ahluwalia is a passenger on the Komagata Maru. The other five actors portray characters that live near the Vancouver harbor and have opinions about, or in the case of William Hopkinson (Omar Alex Khan), have the final decision of what happens to the people on the ship. Unlike the other four, the character of T.S. (Quelemia Sparrow), which I have read is supposed to stand for "the system" or "the spectator" is not so much a corporeal being, but instead a representation of the hateful and racist words and thoughts that some Canadians at the time had about non-white British subjects who were trying to immigrate. Given that racism and intolerance is a key theme of this play, Loughran has made the choice to take things a step further and create an indigenous presence that was not originally in the play. After all, this incident took place on land that white Europeans were once immigrants on as well. Ms. Sparrow's character initially walks onto the stage in traditional First Nations dress and then slowly transforms into "T.S" who wears what is more or less a circus ringleader outfit. From there, the character devilishly dances about on stage and spouts the prejudiced propaganda of the day. The character takes on a 'trickster' role, which is also a common feature of indigenous storytelling. It is admirable that Loughran wants to include an indigenous presence and there is a clever irony to having an indigenous character spout the hateful and hypocritical rhetoric about immigrants that people who were also technically immigrants were spouting at the time (and still spout today). That said, it almost doesn't seem fair to include First Nations people in this embarrassing moment from Canadian history and the message almost gets lost due to this somewhat confusing creative choice.

The use of the intimate Studio Theatre allows for effective storytelling and excellent acoustics when Kiran Ahluwalia sings beautifully haunting music that she herself has composed. This music is performed throughout the play, as "the woman" waits aboard the Komagata Maru to learn her fate. Throughout the play, she speaks to her young child, and although I tend to be fairly proficient at suspending my disbelief, I did struggle with the fact that there was not actually a child on stage---or even a blanket in a shadowy corner of the ship where a child could ostensibly be tucked away. It seemed strange and almost comical that 'The Woman" was talking to thin air. It was at times actually quite distracting from the story. "Woman" represents every person on the ship, which is an interesting choice. I must admit that I went into this production assuming that the 6 cast members would be portraying various people on the ship whose lives were altered by this incident. When I learned that the focus was actually on those on the outside looking in, I was very surprised, but hopeful that this interesting choice of perspective would provide an enlightening narrative. Unfortunately that never really happened.

The central focus of the story is William Hopkinson (Khan) who struggles throughout the play with the decisions he is making and his own hypocrisy in making them. The other characters are a German friend who he meets named Georg (Tyrone Savage), a Chinese immigrant turned sex worker named Sophie (Jasmine Chen), who works in a brothel, and the madam of the brothel, Evy, played by Diana Tso, who provides the highlight performance in this production.

What this play does well is emphasize the hypocrisy among people who express and act on prejudice. This certainly allows for a great deal of self-reflection. The audience members are not simply left to self-reflect, however. They are completely confronted by the ideas that 'T.S' is expressing and they in fact, become the 'spectator' who says and does nothing as innocent people are being discriminated against. It is all very uncomfortable, and perhaps that is the point, but if the audience is not fully engaged in the way the story is being told, there is the risk of them almost becoming resentful of being put in such a situation.

Although this was not my favourite production of this season, I do appreciate that the Stratford Festival consistently brings forth daring and unique new productions based on incredibly important stories. Unfortunately, I left this performance feeling like this particular story has still not been effectively told.

THE KOMAGATA MARU INCIDENT continues in Repertory at the Studio Theatre until Sept. 24th

Photo Credit: Cylla von Tiedemann

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