“Dazzling, literary script… full of humor”
“The astounding performance that Joel de la Fuente delivers as Gordon Hirabayashi is reason enough to recommend Hold These Truths…with Jeanne Sakata at the helm, we are treated to a dazzling, literary script that’s full of humor.”
New York Times’ Readers Reviews
“A deft dramatic hand… moving, instructive, thrilling”
“It takes a deft dramatic hand to craft moving theatre out of social history and courtroom drama, and a nuanced actor to portray the passage of time and multiple characters. The Epic Theatre production of Jeanne Sakata‘s Hold These Truths reveals just such deftness of hand and actor nuance. Moving, instructive, thrilling….Travel downtown to be inspired by script, actor, and history in equal measure….Culled to its human and emotional essence, we hold Hirabayashi’s story as we must all ‘hold these truths.’”
Urban Excavations
“A shining play beautifully written…resonates with vitality and power… unforgettable”
“…A shining play beautifully written by Jeanne Sakata…. resonates with vitality and power…de la Fuente’s stirring, layered portrayal of Hirabayashi, and his spot-on ironic and humorous portrayals of Hirabayashi’s parents, friends and people he meets along his journey, propel us toward a mixture of emotions, reminding us that this could happen again if we are not careful. Lisa Rothe’s excellent directing choices and Sakata’s emotionally uplifting rendering of this heroic soul adhere flawlessly. This is what living, breathing theater is about. Unforgettable.”
Technorati
“Lighthearted, witty, and laugh-out-loud funny”
“Hold These Truths is lighthearted, witty, and laugh-out-loud funny…. Joel de la Fuente does a tremendous job as Gordon, endearing himself to the audience with Gordon’s exuberance ….Both Sakata and de la Fuente emphasize the no-nonsense firmness within Gordon, whose deeply patriotic spirit and uncompromising faith allowed him to take on the US government as an American citizen.”
Japan Culture NYC
“Sakata’s eloquent one-man drama… provides a concise examination of a fascinating chapter in American history”
“Jeanne Sakata’s eloquent one-man drama about civil rights giant Gordon Hirabayashi…. provides a concise examination of a fascinating chapter in American history… Joel de la Fuente plays Hirabayashi with buoyant, magnetic enthusiasm, under the direction of Lisa Rothe.”
Huffington Post
“Sakata’s writing dazzles… attention is sharpened to a point and dipped in the inkwell of imagination”
“Sakata’s writing dazzles with her dramatic decision to strip the stage of distractions. Bearing a cast of just actor Ryun Yu, and a simple set of four wooden chairs, every nuance on stage becomes magnified. The audience’s attention is sharpened to a point and dipped in the inkwell of imagination.”
The Daily
Kevin Kwong
“Couldn't be more timely…”
“Although it was first produced in 2007, Hold These Truths couldn't be more timely, when our government has issued an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a ban on immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. The play is particularly impactful as it shows its main character — from the time he was a boy memorizing the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to the time he is an old man — refusing to give up "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
TheaterMania
Barbara Mackay
“A play that every teenager in the region should be taken to see… teaches as much as it enthralls and entertains”
“…the art of the storyteller that this actor possesses and the grace of a ballet dancer that he displays (and that never distracts or confuses) makes the 90-minute play enthralling. There is much to be said for the balance de la Fuente maintains between total reality and utter theatricality. Moments of actual fear for his person infiltrates the audience space as Gordon attempts to live by the words and the spirit of the Constitution. As he defends what is intrinsically American, it is impossible not to reflect on the idiocy of mistakes repeated in our current world as Congress defends the decisions made by our elected leader to do what he believes is right, though it is obviously wrong, about our immigrant situation. The human errors—or inhuman, if you’d like—from the 1940s that startle us each week as new, contemporary solutions to a problem that doesn’t really exist are drawn out here on the Barrington Stage for us to witness up close. It is the power of really good theater that gives us the almost-touch-it feeling as a political mistake beautifully takes place in a local arena. By the end we can almost feel what the American Japanese felt when they were wrongly quarantined for no actual reason.
This is a play that every teenager in the region should be taken to see. It teaches as much as it enthralls and entertains. It’s an important piece.”
The Berkshire Edge
J. Peter Bergman
“A multilayered portrait… this well-crafted and beautifully acted piece offers not just a glimpse of the past but an extraordinarily relevant message for today”
“Sakata’s play is not a polemic but rather a multilayered portrait arising from anecdotes, memories and telling details. The most striking aspect of Hold These Truths is de la Fuente’s portrayal of Hirabayashi as a cheerful warrior. He seems to relish the opportunity to be the nail that sticks up and his story is peppered with humor and humanity. As his character faces a prison sentence and numerous betrayals and rejections, de la Fuente’s puckish grin and delicate sense of comic timing convey the outrage of this dark moment in American history with powerful irony.
Hirabayashi’s vindication when his verdict is overturned 45 years later hardly seems sufficient in the face of what his courageous ordeal reveals about the havoc fear can wreck upon the most basic human rights. This well-crafted and beautifully acted piece offers not just a glimpse of the past but an extraordinarily relevant message for today.”
Star Tribune
Lisa Brock
“Salve for the weary soul as it portrays the sometimes long, but hopefully inevitable, bend toward justice”
“As a young child, a fresh-faced college student, an aging sociology professor, de la Fuente’s Hirabayashi holds a principled center, and it is that simple insistence on what is right and acting ‘as if was what should be…is’ that makes Sakata’s play so stirring.
For this current run of Hold These Truths, though, during this particular historical moment and the rhetoric surrounding it, the thought of legal internment of American citizens and the failure of institutions to live up to their founding principles does not feel removed. This does not feel like a cautionary tale of how to keep the dark times at bay, so much as an instruction manual for what to do once they have arrived. With the production’s Quaker plainness, de la Fuente’s simple and human portrayal, and Sakata’s blend of historical fact, memory, and fiction, Hold These Truths does not shy away from the inhumanity or injustice of the time, nor the baffling incongruity of the Supreme Court’s original decision in Hirabayashi’s case with the founding principles of this country. Still, though, this play can offer some salve for the weary soul as it portrays the sometimes long, but hopefully inevitable, bend toward justice.”
Twin Cities Arts Reader
Lydia Lunning
“Peppered with both laughter and tears… theater at its most enriching and transcendent”
“Powerful, compelling, inspiring... the time could not be riper for Jeanne Sakata's Hold These Truths, the extraordinary tale of one American's fight for his inalienable rights at a time when his own government wished to deny them... Ryun Yu gives one of the year’s most dazzling performances... Kubzansky utilizes every inch of Ben Zamora’s striking, nearly bare set and its mere three chairs in ever more ingenious ways, aided by Zamora’s evocative lighting, Soojin Lee’s subtly morphing costume design and above all by John Zalewski’s sensational sound design... Gripping and suspenseful and peppered with both laughter and tears, Hold These Truths honors Gordon Hirabayashi’s battles, celebrates his ultimate victory, and reminds us of how much still needs to be done, now more than ever. It is far more than a solo performance. It is theater at its most enriching and transcendent."
StageSceneLA
“Powerful and heartbreakingly human piece of art”
"This show is a powerful and heartbreakingly human piece of art... Jeanne Sakata pours an enormous amount of heart and passion into this story... Ryun Yu.delivers an absolutely tour-de-force performance... There are comedic and dramatic moments that sometimes turn on a dime; Yu navigates them masterfully."
MD Theatre Guide
Kristin Franco
“Endearing, funny, searing and thought-provoking”
“Jeanne Sakata’s play is in turn endearing, funny, searing and thought-provoking... an extraordinary performance than never flags... Yu’s deeply moving performance is enhanced by director Jessica Kubzansky’s sensitive and judicious directing... Ben Zamora provides the strikingly spare set and the fabulous Rothko-like backgrounds of saturated colored rectangles... All is accompanied by John Zalewski's inspired sound design, as spare and elegant as the show itself."
Vanguard Culture
“A riveting life story... creating a one-man microcosm of America”
“A riveting life story... Yu is a wonderfully flexible performer, who morphs into some three dozen characters of different accents, dialects and ethnicities, creating a one-man microcosm of America. He’s spellbinding to watch."
Times of San Diego
“Lyrical & quietly forceful… injects the story with humanity and humor”
“Lyrical & quietly forceful… the gifted Ryun Yu not only plays Hirabayashi but also shifts like quicksilver into some 3 dozen other characters, from parents to Supreme Court Justices... injects the story with humanity and humor."
San Diego Tribune
“Gripping one-man show… feels eerily true to life”
“One of the stunning things about Joel de la Fuente’s performance in Jeanne Sakata’s gripping one-man show, presented by Epic Theatre Ensemble, is how completely he embodies the real-life character of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese-American pacifist, born in 1918. Hirabayashi, believing that it was unconstitutional for the U.S. government to intern American citizens, refused, as a college student, to join his family in the camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and was imprisoned. De la Fuente, under the direction of Lisa Rothe, also plays many other characters—Hirabayashi’s parents, his college friends, police, lawyers, judges, a Hopi Indian—but his portrayal of Hirabayashi, whom President Obama just this year posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, feels eerily true to life. With gorgeous lighting by Cat Tate Starmer.”
The New Yorker
“Irresistibly charismatic raconteur… performance is flawlessly focused and dazzlingly versatile”
“Joel de la Fuente makes an irresistibly charismatic raconteur as Gordon, seamlessly slipping in and out of dozens of different persona of people he interacts with in the course of his story. ...his performance is flawlessly focused and dazzlingly versatile in the production crisply directed by Lisa Rothe.”
San Jose Mercury
“A playwright who conveys emotions and words with a poetry that is full of humor and knowledge”
"Ms. Sakata is a wonderful playwright who conveys emotions and words with a poetry that is full of humor and knowledge."
Times Square Chronicles
“A gripping story… shameful chapter of our history”
“Hold These Truths, elegantly directed by Lisa Rothe in a top-notch production for the company Hang a Tale, is a gripping story about a shameful chapter of our history, when the United States government looked at its own people and saw the enemy.”
The New York Times
Laura Collins-Hughes
“Hirabayashi reminds us that it is precisely when our bedrock values are hardest to defend that we must stand most firmly behind them”
“I wish the current White House, along with young people throughout the nation, could be compelled to attend Hold These Truths...the story of Gordon Hirabayashi reminds us that it is precisely when our bedrock values are hardest to defend that we must stand most firmly behind them.”
Los Angeles Times
Charles McNulty