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Showing posts from September, 2011

A Bold and Surprisingly Humorous Late Night Opener — STOP KISS at UHM

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The Late Night season in the Lab Theatre at Kennedy–UHM opens with Stop Kiss , by American playwright Diana Son. The play, about the developing relationship between two women in New York and the violence inspired by their first kiss, presents the audience with a modern, witty, realistic story. The scenes alternate back and forth between the moments leading up to and following the devastating hate crime. This is no easy project to undertake, as the script requires serious investment for the promised payoff. It’s a bold choice for Late Night, which offers the director only the minimal in terms of budget and design capability. Director Amanda Stone seemed to be going for a balance between the two sides of the conflict—the light and the dark—in the way she directed the play. The structure has the potential to be quite powerful. The audience should fall in love with the characters as the characters fall in love with each other, while the constant interruption by a predetermined future

Human Weakness Laid Bare — MISS JULIE by AWS

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Apostol and Chu All the World’s a Stage Theatre Company’s latest “in your space” production, Miss Julie , has found its way to Indigo’s Opium Den, with the setting of Strindberg’s play relocated from Sweden to China, and the script adapted to match the altered time and place—1930s Shanghai. The set isn’t a set, really, not in the way most sets are constructed. The space is used more or less “as is,” creating a theatre out of the natural structure and dimensions of the Opium Den. The audience sits only feet away from the action, with no demarcation between “stage” and “offstage” areas. Not even the lighting accomplishes any noticeable separation of the space. There is a lack of theatricality about the show, an attempt, it seems, to create something very realistic, very believable, very personal, very intimate. At only an hour and fifteen minutes, this play is packed with drama—a real rollercoaster power struggle between the three characters. Class, sexuality, and gender are th

Theatre that Gets Under Your Skin — BUG at UHM

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Addison and McGahan This island is crawling with bugs of all kinds. Even aphids, I’d imagine. But at no moment in my eight years of residence have they ever creeped and crawled in such a disturbing manner as they did last night in the Earl Ernst Lab Theatre at UH M ā noa. The play, by Tracy Letts, is called   Bug   and it lives up to its title. But it’s about more than just bugs. It’s about people. Some seriously messed up people. Lindsay Timmington McGahan plays Agnes White, a waitress living in a motel room on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. This is not the Oklahoma from the musical we’ll be seeing later in the year on Kennedy’s mainstage, but some of the characters maybe aren’t all that different. At the core, people are people. It’s experience that separates…or draws certain people together. McGahan’s portrayal of Agnes is outstanding—her movements, her accent, her timing—so natural, so in-the-moment, I sometimes forgot I was watching a play. A couple things happen to get

Cycles of Violence Noh Beauty Can Tame — CANE FIELDS BURNING at KKT

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* Demon and Spirit The stage is a square platform in a soft wood hue surrounded on all sides by audience seats, behind which naked trees grow out of the walls. Sparse, entrapped openness. The only vibrancy comes from brightly colored strips of cloth curtaining the main entrance. The only clutter, from moving boxes littered about the stage. The boxes seem out of place, especially once the show begins and in through those curtains flow a chorus of ghostly women dressed in old-style field garb with cane knives and a single masked female wearing an ethereal Japanese Kimono. The chorus chants, poses, hums, flutes, saws, and screeches. The masked woman makes slow, deliberate movements in the style of Japanese Noh theatre and speaks in evocative poetic language. The effect is haunting. I’m no Noh expert, but I recognize performance that is stylized, heightened, beautiful. Then, a man and a younger man enter. They start talking while going through the boxes. Their conversation is sti

Boxy Rabbit Holes in a Noir Funhouse — THE 39 STEPS at MVT

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The house was nearly full last night for Manoa Valley Theatre’s preview of The 39 Steps . The show opens tonight for what I predict will be a very successful run. The play, adapted by Patrick Barlow from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock, comically renders a spy-mystery-adventure drama, set in 1935, with the hero, Richard Hannay (Elitei Tatafu Jr.), travelling through various locations in England and Scotland determined to crack the case and clear his name. The scenes are hilarious, the action zooms right along, the theatricality consists of layers and levels, doors and windows, screens and frames, smoke, guns and fire, and an ever-revolving parade of comic characters portrayed by only two actors. And of course, a beautiful woman, times three, sort of. Tatafu and Stoltzfus as Annabella Schmidt This is Hannay’s story. The show opens with the handsome hero, of the wavy hair and the brown eyes and the pencil mustache, addressing the audience in

Oedipus Sex! A Fundraiser for LCC

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Today’s my birthday, and as an early present, I got a sneak behind-the-scenes peek last night at LCC’s fundraiser Oedipus Sex! , which opens tomorrow in the lab theatre there. The show is part burlesque, part drama, part comedy, part madness, part beauty, part sexy, part improv, part inappropriate, part you get the idea. Definitely for mature audiences, all the parts put together should equal a night of guilty fun. The first act is the burlesque portion of the evening, though maybe not your “typical” burlesque show, if there is such a thing, since this one includes a handful of guys who certainly aren’t showing any skin. Host Jonathan Reyn leads the dude crew, which provides a loose storyline and some comedy between the dance numbers. I liked the range of performances—no two alike. One of my favorite dance pieces involved balloons, a box, Salem Sipes, Meghan Ormita, and Melissa Kenigton, and showcased playful yet serious beauty. Sipes captivates as the doll becomes dancer