ON STAGE
COURTESY THE ACTORS GROUP
Taylor (Eric Nemoto) and Harold (Wil Kahele) are mountain climbers grappling with survival in The Actors Group production of "K2."
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Look-out mountain
A powerful play uses a life-or-death dilemma to examine the nature of friendship
Call it an "original cast revival," but almost exactly four years after The Actors Group production of "K2" played to a handful of people in Windward Community College's Little Theatre -- and then came out a winner at the 2003 Po'okela Awards -- TAG and director Dennis Proulx have brought the show to TAG's Yellow Brick Studio. Proulx, who received a pair of "Pokies" in 2003 as the show's director and set designer, is reunited with Eric Nemoto and Wil Kahele, who are reprising their portrayals of Taylor and Harold.
'K2'
Presented by The Actors Group
On stage: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and 4 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 17
Place Yellow Brick Studio, 626 Keawe St.
Tickets: $15; $13 seniors; $12 students
Call: 550-8457 or online at www.honoluluboxoffice.com
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As with TAG's first, ambitious staging, "K2" is powerful, thought-provoking theater.
Taylor and Harold are high-altitude mountain-climbers stranded on a ledge on K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. Also known to Westerners as Mount Godwin-Austin, it is a mere 778 feet lower than Mount Everest. Fewer people try K2 than Everest, and a higher percentage of them die.
Taylor and Harold lost most of their supplies and climbing gear in an accident coming down from the summit, and Harold has a broken leg. If Taylor can climb back up the sheer rock face and retrieve a lost rope, they may be able to continue the climb down. If not, they won't have enough rope to lower Harold to safety.
Even if Taylor were to try instead to reach the bottom of the cliff and make it to the base camp, Harold would almost certainly die of exposure before he could return.
The interplay between the two as they assess the situation and struggle for survival reveals two interesting characters. Harold has found meaning and purpose as a loving husband and father whose resume as a physicist includes a research breakthrough or two. Taylor, loud and foul-mouthed, is a cynical district attorney who prefers casual sex to the dangers inherent in emotional commitment. But he can't face the prospect leaving his best friend to die.
Nemoto and Kahele were excellent in 2002. They live up to expectations in 2006.
Proulx again places the audience behind the two men -- inside the mountain looking out -- and allows the viewers' imaginations to create the sheer rock face running hundreds of feet above and below the trapped men, and then to visualize Taylor's risky climb.
"K2" is a challenging examination of the nature of friendship. Under what circumstances would you leave your best friend to die? And, under what circumstances would you tell your best friend to do so?