Pacific Overtures

But no amount of performing, or of incidental charm, can salvage "Pacific Overtures." The occasion is essentially dull and immobile because we are never properly placed in it, drawn neither East nor West, given no specific emotional or cultural bearings. The evening is a Japanese artifact with a stamp on the back of it that says "Made in America." And perhaps turnabout is fair play. But it does raise a basic question, for us if not for the Japanese. Why tell their story their way, when they'd do it better? ~ Walter Kerr. New York Times. 1976.

Eschewing visual spectacle, director Gary Griffin employs a formal, minimalist approach perfectly suited to the show's key influences, Kabuki and haiku... The result is riveting theater--and a thought-provoking illustration of how a society sure of its own righteousness and invulnerability can be reshaped, even undone in a moment. ~ Albert Williams. Chicago Reader. 2001.