Description

This powerful drama illustrates the impact of wareand the nightmare of nuclear fallouteas experienced by some of World War II’s most innocent victims: the children of Japan. Kyushu, a Japanese street orphan, is admitted into a Hiroshima hospital in the mid-1950s. When it is discovered that she’s losing her eyesight, the spectre is raised whether she is also a victim of A-bomb illness. Despite her denial that she was in Hiroshima during the bomb blast, she is visited by a ghastly memory of the burned out city, the Cockroach Woman, and she resists all attempts by a Japanese physician and an American psychologist to help her. She falls more deeply into depression and hopelessnesseuntil her chance meeting and eventual friendship with a young A-bomb patient named Sadako gives Kyushu the strength and desire to recover. Paper Lanterns, Paper Cranes is a winner of the IUPUI National Playwriting Competition. Production notes are available in the script containing details on setting and characterization. Multicultural cast. Approximate running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes, with intermission.