Playwrights’ views
of territorial times
are powerful tales

"Territorial Plays": Presented by Kumu Kahua at 46 Merchant St., at 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 3. Tickets are $16; $13 seniors; $10 students. Call 536-444.

Kumu Kahua opened its season in great style with "Territorial Plays," a collection of three short pieces written during or just after Hawaii's Territorial Era (1900-'59). Each is from a different decade, offering a different perspective on island life. Strong performances make each story interesting.

"Cane Fire," written by Kathryn Bond as a 1936 class assignment, takes place on a sugar plantation after a mysterious fire has destroyed 60 acres of cane. All but 10 acres of was ready to be burned. The plantation manager, accountable for the 10 acres of sugar that may now be lost, shouts at everyone as he tries to determine the fire's cause. The culprit is eventually identified and punishment levied -- and the story ends with a twist. Perhaps the manager isn't quite the abrasive bully he appears to be!

Kumu Kahua artistic director Harry Wong III opts to present Bond's story as an agitprop farce. A team of narrators reads Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem, "The White Man's Burden," and Bond's tale is then staged as heavy-handed comedy in which the now patient manager exists in an environment in which even his Caucasian bookkeeper is a dimwit. Wong's make-over of Bond's story is good for a few laughs, but adds nothing more. Bond has already established that the manager is neither tactful nor polite when dealing with the fire's aftermath.

LISA TOISHIGAWA INOUYE was known as Bessie Toishigawa when she wrote "Reunion" for a playwriting class in 1946. Taka, Masa, Shig, Duke and Jits are Nisei soldiers back from Europe with high hopes but vague plans. Duke has a job with the city, Masa is thinking about medical school but working as a carpenter, Shig is still recovering from his wounds, Taka is unemployed and Jits is a survey engineer.

The friends hang out in front of Taka's parents' home and fight boredom by reliving their wartime experiences and pondering the future. By the time Taka's mother insists they come in for lunch, Taka, too, has tentative plans.

The narrators explain that "Reunion" was a hit here in 1947 because it expressed what many veterans and their families were experiencing.

THE THIRD work, "In the Alley," was written by Edward Sakamoto to avoid getting an "incomplete" in a 1961 UH playwriting class. It is the deepest and most nuanced of the three, exploring the grim lives of four young men who make a downtown alley their hangout and urinal.

Manny, Bear, Champ and Cabral hate haoles, considering them loud, cocky, crude and "want to have sex with our women!" Manny's brother, Jojo, mentions that a haole at school seems like a nice guy but the older guys set him straight -- "Don't let him fool you!"

The four nurse their bigotry while drinking stolen beer. Champ is ridiculed for losing a boxing match to a haole serviceman.

Eventually, a Caucasian sailor with a local woman on his arm blunders into the alley. Manny and his friends insult the couple and threaten to rape the woman. Then they attack the sailor.

Sakamoto underscores the tragedy with a twist that shows how racist attitudes are passed from one person to the next.

Each story benefits from solid casting. Daniel James Kunkel anchors "Cane Fire" with a strong performance as the plantation manager. Chance Gusukuma, Wil T.K. Kahele, Shiro Kawai, Michael A Proffitt and Max Smart provide effective support in both versions of the story.

Gusukuma (Taka) and Kawai (Jits) are joined by M.J. Gonzalvo (Masa), Eric H. Mita (Shig) and Stu Hirayama (Duke) in making "Reunion" feel like an episode from a "Seinfeld"-style sitcom. Salli K. Morita (Miyo) and Tracy Tayama (Teruko) add a touch of feminine charm with their portrayals of Taka's younger sisters, both of whom may be "interested" in Masa.

Gonzalvo (Manny) is Sakamoto's protagonist and gives a convincing performance as the most articulate of the street punks. Gusukuma (Champ) does his most intense work here. Morita adds impact as the gutsy local girl who challenges the four punks, and Daniel Lopaka Kalahele (Jojo) makes an impressive stage debut.

It's a stretch to imagine that any of these one-act plays were ever "dangerous to do," as Wong suggests in his director's notes, but they provide an entertaining look at how playwrights once viewed life in Hawaii.