Mitsue Sakamoto and Ralph MacLean both suffered tremendous loss during WWII: Mitsue as a survivor of a Japanese Canadian internment camp, and Ralph as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. In order to rebuild their lives and their families after the war, Ralph and Mitsue must find the grace and generosity necessary to forgive those who have wronged them. Their paths eventually cross in 1968 when Mitsue’s son and Ralph’s daughter begin dating, and Ralph is invited to Mitsue’s home for dinner.

This soaring adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s award-winning memoir affirms the power of forgiveness and shows us that in our challenging times characterized by political divisiveness, xenophobia, and race hatred, the story of Mitsue and Ralph’s personal triumphs over hatred, injustice, violence, and bigotry remains vitally relevant and urgently necessary.

Hiro Kanagawa is a Vancouver-based actor, playwright, screenwriter, and teacher. His distinctions include Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards for both acting and playwriting, an Asians on Film Award, and an MFA from Simon Fraser University. Among his numerous screen credits he is perhaps best known for his recurring roles and guest appearances on popular American television series such as The X-Files, Smallville, iZombie, and The Man in the High Castle. Behind the camera, he was story editor on the critically acclaimed Canadian series Da Vinci’s Inquest, as well as Da Vinci’s City Hall, Intelligence, and Blackstone. On stage, his previous plays include Tiger of Malaya (Factory Theatre, Toronto/National Arts Centre, Ottawa), and The Patron Saint of Stanley Park (Arts Club, Vancouver).

Hiro Kanagawa's profile page

MARK SAKAMOTO is an entrepreneur and investor in digital health and digital media and is the executive vice-president of Think Research, a global digital-health company. His first book, Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents, debuted as a #1 national bestseller and went on to win CBC Canada Reads in 2018. The book is being developed into a feature film and has been theatrically staged by Vancouver’s Arts Club Theatre Company and Theatre Calgary. A frequent television presence, Mark was the host and executive producer of Good People, a documentary series that explored humanity’s biggest problems and was co-produced by Vice Media and the CBC. He sits on the Giller Foundation’s board of directors. Mark Sakamoto lives in Toronto and Prince Edward County with his wife and their two daughters.

Mark Sakamoto's profile page

Cindy Mochizuki creates multi-media installation, audio fiction, performance, animation, drawings and community-engaged projects. Her works explore the manifestation of story and its complex relationships to site-specificity, the transpacific, invisible histories, archives, and memory work. Her artistic process is often research-based and moves back and forth between multiple sites of cultural production considering language, performativity, chance, and improvisation. She has worked extensively on a large body of work that is informed by and within Japanese Canadian communities in B.C and Japan. In these projects she works with members of these communities and often includes her paternal family’s history both within the internment camps and their experiences as repatriated Japanese Canadians in Japan in the post war.

Cindy Mochizuki's profile page

• Short-listed, Governor General's Literary Awards
• Winner, Calgary Theatre Critic's Awards - Outstanding New Play

“Hiro has truly brought Forgiveness to life with a wondrous grace. This promises to be theatre that will stay with you for a very long time.”

Mark Sakamoto, author of Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents