By Kathryn Bender, Star-BulletinMORE 'TUNA': In "A Tuna Christmas" at
Manoa Valley Theatre, Michael Beard, left, and David
Barrier play a total of 21 characters. The sequel to the comedy
"Greater Tuna" continues 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday
(except tonight), 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 4 p.m. Sunday,
through Dec. 14. For tickets, $18-$25, call 988-6131.
Curtains up
Local translation of Shakespeare's
By John Berger
'Shrew' just doesn't fit modern
times and manners
Special to the Star-BulletinDa Taming of Da Shrew: A University of Hawaii-Manoa production, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, through Dec. 7, except today and Sunday, KennedyTheatre, Tickets are $3-$12, available at Connection outlets. Call 545-4000 or 956-7655
PIDGIN "translations" of "haole theater" almost always draw turn-away crowds. The throngs that turn out for Lisa Matsumoto's scrambling of European-American fairy tales would seem to prove the point, but when the University of Hawaii-Manoa's pidgin version of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew" opened at Kennedy Theatre last weekend the facility was strangely far from full.
It isn't the first time Shakespeare has been rewritten for local consumption. James Grant Benton did it years ago with "Twelf Nite Or Whateva." This effort, "Da Taming of Da Shrew," has its moments, but Benton did it better. We've been there, done that.
The script is credited to "Willy Shakespeare, Bruddah Glenn & da Cast" ("Bruddah Glenn" Cannon is also the director). It isn't pure pidgin. Some characters speak the exaggerated pidgin lingo that's standard from playwrights coming out of the UH-Manoa Drama Department. Others speak intricate Shakespearean English. Some are rewritten as Filipino immigrants with heavy stereotypical Filipino accents.
The production has the same types of weaknesses found in Kumu Kahua's localized version of "Otello" in 1996. Ripping Shakespeare's "Shrew" out of its historical setting and moving it to modern Hawaii causes fundamental changes in the balance of the story. In this case it makes hash of the plot: Women in contemporary Hawaii don't have to postpone marriage until their older sisters find mates. Fathers here cannot legally auction off a daughter to the highest bidder. This couldn't happen here today.
Nor could Petruchio "tame" Kate with techniques that would get him imprisoned for felony spouse abuse.
Most contemporary local pidgin-speakers would not likely label a woman of Kate's disposition as a shrew -- "Da Taming of Da Beech" would be more like it. Oh well.
At least there are some marvelous performances. Eric Dixon Burns ("Lightnin' Joe" Petruchio) brings more than a hint of Bruce Willis to his portrayal of the Caucasian boxer from Cali who agrees to woo and wed Da Shrew (Kyra Poppler).
Poppler is absolutely magnificent. She and Burns are a great team and the brightest stars in the production.
Other notables include Lito Capina as stereotypical Filipino Bonofacio MacDangDang, Andrew Chow as stereotypical Filipino Hortensio "Boing Boing" Salabang, and Munson Nakadomori as Petruchio's hapless flunky Grumio "Ding-Dong" Sakamoto.
David C. Farmer and James R. Brandon add dignity and much of the classic Shakespearean eloquence that remains. Hanalei Naihe personifies silent menace as the bodyguard of a local union boss.
Joshua Tegge and Donalyn Dela Cruz were opening night favorites for many in the crowd. Both play stock character types standard in UH-Manoa pidgin comedies: He's the male-actor-in-female-clothes character; she's the stereotypical abrasive "tita."
Set designer Joseph D. Dodd imaginatively defines the locale with giant letters spelling out
A L O H A in picture postcard aloha print designs. Sandra Finney apparently let much of the cast perform in their street clothes -- her costuming of the others adds considerably to the comic impact.
Cannon's "Shrew" would be more impressive as either a drama class assignment or one-man vanity project if pidgin was used throughout, and if the writing matched the wit and brilliance Shakespeare achieved 400 years ago with English.
Pre-contact Hawaii drama
By John Berger
inserts jarring Western-style
sensibilities into the plot
Special to the Star-BulletinMohala Ka Lehua: At 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 6 at University of Hawaii-Manoa, Ernst Lab Theatre. Tickets, $3-$6, are available one hour before the performance for that night's show only. Call 956-7655.
THOSE who speak Hawaiian are at a major advantage with the University of Hawaii-Manoa Ernst Lab Theatre production of "Mohala Ka Lehua." The characters speak English, but much of Tammy Haili'opua Baker's one-act play consists of hula and untranslated chant. No narrator summarizes the meaning or importance of the Hawaiian-language segments. Nor does the playbill contain information about those segments or the cultural milieu of pre-1778 Hawaii, the setting for the play.
Hawaiian Studies students and others fluent in the language will understand the significance of the Hawaiian segments and the subtleties within. All others will find "Mohala Ka Lehua" a simple teen-age love story lengthened by hula and chant.
Kanoelehua (Genevieli Shankles) meets a stranger (Ikaika Hussey). They talk briefly but she doesn't learn his name. She longs to see him again, but not even the neighborhood kahuna, Ho'oipo (Kawaiarii Keaulana), can help her entice an unidentified man who left no token of his presence.
Life goes on. Kanoelehua must instruct, care for and cater to her younger sister, Lilinoe (Julie Woo).
The girls have different fathers and since Lilinoe's father is of higher rank, she outranks Kanoelehua and is favored by their mother (Hokunani Busby).
Kanoelehua confesses to her grandmother (Kameha'ililani Waiau) that she feels guilty for resenting Lilinoe's superior position; the girls' mother admits she feels guilty for favoring Lilinoe. Neither conflict is developed beyond that point.
The story concludes with a ceremony in which men and women of suitable rank play games with the objective of winning sex partners for the night. The mysterious stranger turns out to be a high ranking alii named Kahinano who is the protege of Lilinoe's father (C. Kekuhaupi'o Embernate).
When Kahinano is directed to pair off with Lilinoe he angers or embarrasses everyone by refusing. He wants only Kanoelehua.
It's here that this story of pre-contact Hawaii appears to stall on a 20th-century haole plot device. Are we to believe that a high ranking 18th-century alii presumably taught since birth of the importance of perpetuating of his blood line would offend a powerful mentor by refusing to perform one night of stud service for that purpose?
Kahinano isn't being ordered to marry Lilinoe and live monogamously ever after. Would 18th-century Hawaiians have haole attitudes on sex? The post-contact tragedy of Kamehameha III and his sister Nahienaena suggests not. Playwright Baker doesn't reveal enough about Kahinano to make his flouting of convention believable.
Shankles is charming and convincing as our Hawaiian Cinderella. Woo is appropriately sweet yet irksome as a child-woman aware of her advantages and willing to use them. Waiau consistently stole the show last Saturday as the sexually aggressive and preternaturally youthful comic grandmother.
The final scene is good theater. Even as you question the historic realism of the situation, you'll be hoping that Kanoelehua wins her man.
John Berger has covered the local entertainment scene since 1972.
