33rd Season of Plays for and about Hawai`i.

This season Kumu Kahua presents five world premiere plays, along with a Christmas show that's becoming a holiday tradition. Four of the new plays are written by Hawai`i writers, one by a Hawai`i-born playwright living in California, and our co-production with Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Christmas Talk Story 2003, features the talents of a wide range of writers.

With this outstanding season, our commitment to producing plays for and about Hawai`i continues. Below are descriptions of each play along with scheduled performance dates.

For the fifth season, Kumu Kahua premieres a new work by playwright, screenwriter, actor and newspaper columnist Lee Cataluna. In a series of sometimes comic, sometimes somber monologues set inside a Hawai'i Longs Drug Store, Cataluna continues her theatrical exploration of the human condition with an emphasis on local color. Customers and employees alike take turns onstage discussing everything from product purchases to boyfriends and girlfriends, abusive spouses and mortal enemies.

Some two dozen characters, including Verna ("Waipahu's answer to Martha Stewart"), Rhondalei Alvarado, Rogelio "D.J. Stankmaster" Cabingabang, Crazy Aunt Cookie, Officer Wolverton Kahaunaele and Uncle Choochie Nawai, tend inadvertently to reveal their own personalities while discussing the character flaws of others—all against the backdrop of Hawaii's preferred shopping destination. As character Cheryl Moana Marie Sakata says, “This is my whole life. This is the rest of my life. Zippys, Foodland, Longs.”

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm: August 28, 29, 30; September 4, 5, 6, 11, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27
Sunday 2pm: August 31; September 7, 14, 21, 28

Obake
by Edward Sakamoto

In Obake playwright Sakamoto, whose comedies and dramas have been regularly produced by Kumu Kahua, turns his talents to a traditional Japanese ghost story set in plantation-day Hawai'i—a chilling tale of violence, betrayal and supernatural retribution. Tamotsu, who has been fired from his job on the plantation, ridicules his picture-bride wife Kazue and friend Hitoshi for their superstitious belief in obake. But he will soon become a believer.

Drinking, gambling, whoring, stealing and abusing Kazue, Tamotsu sinks quickly into the depths of depravity. Always looking for the easy way out of this troubles, he eventually goes too far. An unseen black cat, which has been mysteriously appearing throughout the play to thwart Tamotsu's nefarious schemes, figures prominently in his frightening fate. Sakamoto's Aloha Las Vegas, which broke Kumu Kahua box office records when originally staged in 1992, was successfully revived last season by Kumu.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm: October 30, 31; November 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 28, 29
Sunday 2pm: November 2, 9, 16, 23, 30

Best of Christmas Talk Story
by a range of local writers

Fun for the whole family and filled with Christmas memories, original songs and holiday standards, Best of Christmas Talk Story will take you on a "small-kid-time" journey through Christmastime in Hawai`i. A co-production with Honolulu Theatre for Youth.

Saturday 3:30pm and 7:30pm: November 29; December 6, 13, 20
Sunday 3:30pm: November 30; December 7, 14, 21

Massie/Kahahawai
compiled by Dennis Carroll

Much has been written about the case of Thalia Massie, the wife of Naval officer Thomas Massie, who was allegedly assaulted on September 12, 1931—an act that resulted in two notorious trials that threatened to undermine the delicate racial balance of the Territory of Hawai‘i. When a mistrial was declared and the five local men who had been accused of the assault were set free, Lieutenant Massie, his mother Grace Fortescue and two enlisted men kidnapped and murdered one of the defendants, Joseph Kahahawai.

In this trial, the famous lawyer Clarence Darrow represented the defendants; when they were found guilty of manslaughter, Territorial Governor Lawrence Judd commuted their sentences. Using records of the trials and information gathered from secondary sources, playwright Carroll recreates the story without adding fictional dialogue, using a "trial as ritual" dramatic concept which he describes as "a cross between Brecht and Artaud."

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm: January 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31; February 5, 6, 7
Sunday 2pm: January 11, 18; February 1, 8

Fanny and Belle
by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl

Many of us are familiar with the life of Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of such widely acclaimed novels as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island and Kidnapped. Few, however, are aware of the life of his wife, Fanny Osbourne, and her daughter Belle—a true story that reads like an adventure novel in its own right. Free-spirited, strong-willed and courageous at a time when these character traits were not common (or particularly welcome) in American women, Fanny and her daughter traveled independently from Indiana to San Francisco, France, Hawai'i, Australia and Samoa.

Using poetic language, weaving episodes through time and space and employing a cast of characters playing multiple roles, playwright Kneubuhl (author of The Conversion of Ka`ahumanu, Kaiulani, Emmalehua and other plays, many produced by Kumu Kahua) transforms a fascinating biography into a mesmerizing theatrical experience.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm: March 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27; April 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10
Sunday 2pm: March 14, 21, 28; April 4

Gone Feeshing
by Lee Tonouchi

"Pidgin Guerilla" Tonouchi, author of the short story collection Da Word, brings his "Mastah-Of-Comic-Disastah" style of literary comedy to the stage with the story of two brothers, Wayne and Grayson, who get together for the first time in several years to go fishing. The lives of Grayson, a schoolteacher, and Wayne, host of a popular fishing-and-cooking television show, have been determined partially by their differing relationships with their late father. When Grayson informs his older brother that he is to be married, the pair embark on a surrealistic journey that takes them through their childhood, teenaged and young adult years and back to the present—helping them to confront their past, deal with their father, and resolve their conflicts to reach a mutual understanding. By having the brothers repeatedly "swept away" by the ocean into turning points of their youth, Tonouchi combines pidgin-based comic dialogue with authentically developed characters.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8pm: May 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29; June 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 2004
Sunday 2pm: May 16, 23, 30; June 6, 13, 2004

Plays from Last Season (2002-2003)

Plays from 2001-2002 Season