‘A Thousand Cranes’: A Perfect Sadness

The Theatre Department production team at Mt. Hood Community College this year has put on some of the most spectacular shows I have ever seen on stage.

It was great a couple months ago to speak with Zach Hartley, MHCC theater instructor and the play’s artistic director. When he explained the story of “A Thousand Cranes” to me, I was immediately sold. It follows the story of a girl named Sadako Sasaki and her family living in Hiroshima, Japan 10 years after the atomic bombing in 1945. 

As Hartley told me a bit about this one-act play, I thought to myself, “That sounds incredibly sad.” Followed by, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Zach!” And indeed, I do not regret being an attendee of this awesome show of history, family, and deep sadness.

Olivia Smith as Sadako Sasaki (Photo by Ken Perez)

The performances from the actors were immersive, and the great stage set-up and light production was all put together by Daryl Harrison-Carson, theatre design and technical director for MHCC. 

The play featured a quartet of people playing different instruments on stage: a tambourine, a wooden frog called a güiro, a pair of Japanese clackers called hyōshigi, and a rain stick. There was also the instrument played by the actor who played the mother at the beginning and end of the play, which is called a peacock or Nagoya harp – or in Japanese: taishogoto.

All that was arranged with amazing sound design by theatre technician Matt Pavik. It was all played perfectly to match the tone and cues of the acting. The Japanese clackers playing made you feel suspense when you needed it to, and it also made you shocked and excited at certain points. I thought it was a great and original way to add texture to the production. It wasn’t just sounds from the speakers above the stage. You could tell the performers worked extremely hard to rehearse and have the timing be PERFECT.  

The colors and lights on the stage were also just right, including a cherry tree with a giant-sized 8-foot-tall red sun and all this great purple lighting throughout the stage. It made this postwar aftermath story feel so wonderful on stage. It felt like viewing a beautiful painting and every light and prop change felt like watching an artist go back in and repaint it. 

I dragged my teenage nephew to A Thousand Cranes’s final showing on Nov. 18, and afterward he said, “that was the f—— best thing I have seen in a long time!” And I couldn’t agree more. I’m grateful to Hartley and the performers and crew who made this production not just a show, but a magnificent memory for us to enjoy.

Ken Perez

Editor-in-Chief