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Star-Bulletin Features


Friday, May 18, 2001



GEORGE F. LEE / STAR-BULLETIN
Roselani Palayan, seated, plays a defiant 15-year-old
and Dann Seki is his grandfather's ghost in "Love 3 Times,"
a Kumu Kahua Theatre production.



Old maps,
new territory

By Scott Vogel
Star-Bulletin

OK, so you're on "Millionaire" one of these days and you've made it to, say, the 250 grand level. The questions have been a breeze until now, but then Regis hits you with a stumper. "What is Rotuma?," he asks. Is it a) a kitchen appliance, b) a system for unclogging drains, c) an island in the South Pacific, or d) a body part?

You fidget for a few seconds, consider walking away. But then it occurs to you that there's one lifeline remaining, at which point you phone your good friend Vilsoni Hereniko, associate professor of Pacific literature at University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Lo and behold, not only does Hereniko know the answer, but he hails from the very Polynesian island you've asked him about.

You hang up promising to keep in touch once you've used your winnings to buy your own Polynesian island, and to jet in for the opening of "Love 3 Times," Hereniko's new play about old world values and new world concerns, which opened last night at Kumu Kahua Theater.

This comedy-drama will teach you even more about Rotuma, which happens to be 300 miles north of Fiji and home to 2,500 residents. One thing you will immediately learn is that dead parents do not stay dead there. In fact, they frequently rise from the grave, especially in cases where they might be of some help to their children. Of course, like all parents (living and dead), the help is not especially welcome, and Hereniko's protagonist, Tomasi, finds himself pulled in -- you guessed it -- three directions at once: toward his dead father, his second wife, and his 15-year-old son, who lives with his mother in England. And during a recent conversation with the dramatist, it became clear that "Love 3 Times" is nothing if not explicitly autobiographical.

"One of the things I'm dealing with in this play is having been brought up in a very traditional way, on a remote South Pacific island with values very different from contemporary society," Hereniko said. "And now, having had a son from a previous marriage, and with the son living in England, being a very urban kid who is into rap music, for example, and the things that urban kids like ..." His voice trails off. Hereniko fervently wishes he could provide his own son with an indispensable, state-of-the-art map to life on 21st century Earth. But in the process, he's made a disturbing discovery: the old models are woefully inadequate.

"My son wants to be a Navy SEAL, to be as different from his dad as possible," he said, laughing at the incongruity of it all. "With everything changing so fast, the technology and the lifestyle and globalization and all that, I think it's something that parents everywhere struggle with. How do you prepare your kids for the future when you don't necessarily have the skills?"

One possible first step is to write a play about the situation, and then invite an audience to share in this kind of communal disillusionment. The action begins when Tomasi, in the company of his wife and son, returns to Rotuma from Honolulu for the first time since his father's death, 20 years after the fact. Once they've laid a gravestone at the burial site, the family returns to Hawaii, only to find that they've picked up some extra baggage (the father's ghost) along the way.

"The ghost is shocked by the urban jungle of Honolulu," Hereniko said, a reaction that nevertheless does not prevent the old man from meddling in his son's affairs under the guise of doing what's best for him, and much of the script's comedy emerges from the inevitable clash of mores.

"There's lots of funny stuff and lots of heartwarming stuff too," said Megan Evans, an Asian Theater Ph.D. candidate at UH who is directing for the first time at Kumu Kahua. "The play's challenging. It's very cinematic in structure, there are lots of short scenes in many locations. And Kumu Kahua is a very small space, so we've had to get creative."

It's a familiar refrain, one that we heard earlier this season from Misa Tupou, whose play about a Samoan immigrant was recently staged at Marks Garage, as well as Tammy Baker, whose tale of island shapeshifters was also mounted at Kumu Kahua. But in each case, the production team somehow surmounted the obstacles, the result being a burgeoning local interest in plays based on island themes and stories.

And so, if Regis should ask you to name the spiritual home of the Pacific Island theater scene, don't even hesitate.

"Honolulu! -- final answer!"


"Love 3 Times"

Showtime: 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through June 17.
Place: Kumu Kahua Theatre, 46 Merchant St.
Cost: $12 and $15; $10 and $12 for seniors; $5 and $10 for students
Call: 536-4441



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