“Hold These Truths”

Joel de la Fuente

A child of Japanese internees herself, playwright Jeanne Sakata ran across a story so incredible for its audacious and persistent gumption of one man’s stand against the wartime edict – Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Roosevelt – that her resulting play, Hold These Truths, could be at first glance thought to be a work of pure fiction.  But the story that Hold These Truths tells of one young Japanese American — born and bred in Seattle, Washington – is very much true, as the playwright herself learned in interviewing Gordon Hirabayashi before his death in 2012.  After an initial version premiered in Los Angeles in 2007 and the present version opened Off-Broadway in 2012, Jeanne Sakata’s impactful, one-man show, Hold These Truths, finally has its long-over-due Bay Area premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, starring the same man who opened the show in New York and has played the part in many productions since, Joel de la Fuente.

For my full review, please continue to Talkin’ Broadway: https://www.talkinbroadway.com/page/regional/sanjose/sj131.html.