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The Improper Identity makes its Toronto Fringe Festival debut July 2 to 12 at Native Earth’s Minogitoon Workspace Giizis Studio, presented by Japanese Canadian performing arts company Mihyonvision.

Different accents can be heard anywhere in Canada: in the grocery store, doctor’s office, restaurants, or just walking down the street. Despite Canada priding itself on being a multicultural society, accent bias remains an invisible form of discrimination, quietly deciding who gets hired, heard, and considered credible.

Japanese Canadian actor and playwright Miho Suzuki explores this overlooked reality in her new play, The Improper Identity. Through comedy, fantasy, and absurdity, Suzuki comments on the immigrant experience, accent bias, and the pressure to conform.   

“This show comes from my own experiences and observations navigating language, belonging, and identity,” says Suzuki. “While The Improper Identity is comedic and absurd, underneath it asks a serious question: what happens when we try to change ourselves to fit systems that were never designed to fully embrace us?” 

The Improper Identity makes its Toronto Fringe Festival debut July 2 to 12 at Native Earth’s Minogitoon Workspace Giizis Studio, presented by Japanese Canadian performing arts company Mihyonvision. The Improper Identity is a deeply personal project for Suzuki, which she wrote, directs, and performs in, as well as creating choreography, music, paintings, and costumes.  

Suzuki is a multidisciplinary artist and performer, originally from Tokyo, and now based in Toronto. Best known for her lead role in Warigami (a Cannes International Series Festival nominee), as well as theatre and voice work (Assassin’s Creed Shadows), she is a graduate of Tama Art University and The Second City in Toronto.  

The play follows Ai, a Japanese immigrant actress navigating life and work in Canada. Struggling to find work because of how she sounds, she agrees to test the “Pronunciationizer,” a (fictional) device designed to erase her accent, only to discover it is erasing far more than her speech.  

The play is a witty social commentary on the pressure to “sound acceptable” in Canada, exploring the emotional and cultural cost of conformity. Based on Suzuki’s experiences as an actor and immigrant in Canada, she explores the immigrant experience through the lens of language, belonging, and assimilation.  

Suzuki pulled from her own experiences as well as those of people around her, such as the absurdity of auditioning for the role of a Japanese character from Japan and a casting director asking her to drop her Japanese accent. While there has been a push in the film and acting industry to be more inclusive, that inclusivity often does not include accent minorities.  

“I faced this problem many times because I have a Japanese accent…Why is my Japanese accent for a Japanese character not good?” says Suzuki.  

While inspired by Suzuki’s experiences, she hopes this story can resonate with audiences of all backgrounds. Linguistics research has found that learning to speak a second language without any trace of an accent becomes nearly impossible after the age of 12. With nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of the population born outside of Canada and just over half (51 per cent) of Toronto residents are immigrants, according to the 2021 census, the reality is that many people speak with accents.  

Step into a hospital and you will hear doctors, nurses, staff, and patients speaking with all types of accents. Yet on medical dramas set in big cities, few accents are heard.  

“We are not represented. So, I want to represent everyone here. If we don’t show people we exist—many different accents exist—then it is more difficult for people to [be] included. I want to open up the door by doing that [in this] theatre play,” says Suzuki.  

Suzuki performed in a friend’s show at last year’s Toronto Fringe Festival called Galen’s Grocer, created by Nikkei playwright Ian Yamamoto. Suzuki had the opportunity to develop her character and incorporated the character’s accent into the show. Audience members, both with and without accents, came up to her, resonating with her character and commenting on never seeing stories about accent bias before. It was a further push to tell this story this year.  

“I thought, I’m going to tell this story. This is really necessary right now. It’s time to tell this story,” says Suzuki.  

Suzuki began researching accent bias and discrimination, discovering that it is often an unconscious response: feeling that someone with an accent is different and so, harder to trust. But these biases don’t only exist in Canada. Suzuki points out that in Japanese media, countryside dialects are often depicted as unsophisticated and comic relief compared to city accents.  

Suzuki hopes people can be more aware of these biases. Suzuki says her English will continue to improve over time but hopes others can meet her along the way. She hopes that by sharing her voice and perspective, it will create space for more understanding and patience.  

“I totally understand how my grammar is not perfect. My accent is not perfect. And I understand the little frustration to listen to what I’m saying. It’s not like I’m going to stay like this forever. I will study. I will practice, but I want people to be open to people who are making an effort [for] a better future,” says Suzuki.  

Creating this play has also led to a deeper exploration of her own identity. In Japan, there is “a very strong feeling that harmony is more important, so you should change to fit in,” says Suzuki. As a Japanese person in Canada, she felt pressure to assimilate and conform, but through her research, came to understand that her accent is not something she can simply erase.  

While exploring a heavy topic, Suzuki is not looking to point fingers, approaching the play with comedy and heart. She thought of Japanese theatre, often designed to make audiences laugh and cry—she hopes comedy can connect her message to audiences.  

Also inspired by Japanese theatre, Suzuki explores kamishibai within the play. Translating to “paper theatre,” kamishibai is a traditional form of Japanese storytelling using painted storyboards. The play is also a way to introduce and share elements of her Japanese culture and background with audiences.  

Suzuki invites audiences to come ready to laugh and enjoy the show but hopes the play can foster acceptance and empathy.  

“This project is really not for money; this is all passion and love. For me, this is love to make the world a little better, happier, and connect to many people,” says Suzuki. “I think after watching this show people might listen to people better or more open-heartedly and that will open the door for everyone—a little more love for other people. That’s my hope.” 

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The Improper Identity runs at Toronto Fringe Festival from July 2 to 12 at Native Earth’s Minogitoon Workspace Giizis Studio. For more information and tickets, visit here.