By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Playwright Darryl Tsutsui, right, and director Keith
Kashiwada, on the set of "Easy Street."
Hurricane’s aftermath
inspires playwright
Kumu Kahua brings
By John Berger
'Easy Street' to the stage
Special to the Star-BulletinPlaywright Darryl Tsutsui was living on Kauai in 1992. He had a good job. He'd just gotten married. He was planning to buy a house. Hurricane Iniki changed all that. Writing his new play, "Easy Street," helped him get past those difficult times.
"I had some real qualms about writing it because people died, people lost their homes, a lot of people, including myself, moved away. How can I justify making money off somebody else's misery -- even fiction? Eventually I justified by saying that it's my way of working it out, (but) I think to this day I'm still affected by it."
"Easy Street" premieres at the Kumu Kahua Theatre tonight.
Dann Seki stars as Jinpei Fujiyama, the family patriarch who decides to defraud the government by exaggerating the family's hurricane losses. His scheme divides the family. Edric Fujiyama (Rodney Kwock) supports his father; daughter Janelle (Marya Takamori) opposes the plan.
"There were some scams and people did get busted making false claims for federal money or Red Cross vouchers," Tsutsui says, although he adds that the characters are not intended portray any particular people.
"When the FEMA guy asked me what I had to claim, I looked around and said, 'I don't think I have anything.' He was stunned. I asked him, 'Am I the only one?' "
Jinpei's scheme drives the action, but Tsutsui says "Easy Street" is ultimately about the way family relationships change in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Tsutsui left Kauai in 1993 and spent two years on the mainland before settling on Oahu.
His draft of "Easy Street" won the 1995-95 UHM/Kumu Kahua Playwriting Contest. He's been working it ever since.
"I told Darryl two years ago 'Don't make any changes until we start rehearsals,' " director Keith Kashiwada said. "But of course playwrights never listen to directors, so he's been writing and rewriting for the last year and a half.
"The development has been interesting because it's a work in process and a world premiere ... it's a nice opportunity to have the playwright be willing to make some changes based on what we've discovered during rehearsals."
And so, did the people of Kauai respond to the islandwide destruction differently than the victims of floods, tornadoes and hurricanes on the mainland? Tsutsui says they did.
"The FEMA people said that we really seemed to pull together, helping ourselves or helping others. I hate to make a comparison, but they said that some people on the mainland get depressed and just sit there.
"I'd like to think that Kauai is a little different. People know everybody. You still don't flip anybody off when you're driving because that might be your neighbor or cousin or a customer."
Easy Street
Showtimes: Opens at 8 p.m. today. Runs through April 5, with shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Thursday shows at 8 p.m. March 26, April 2.
