An enigmatic explor-
ation of relationshipsShoes
By John Berger
Special to the Star-BulletinWomen. Men. Shoes. Playwright Kulthida Maneerat combines them in imaginative ways in "Shoes," a new one-act play in the University of Hawaii at Manoa Ernst Lab Theatre. Maneerat presents the experiences of three women but doesn't tell the audience how to interpret them. There's no simplistic agenda of any kind here, just thought- provoking theatre.
Maneerat and director Amy Utstein use a strip of white fabric as the visual connection between four sets of unrelated characters. Three demurely clad women dance with it in the opening segment. The fabric later represents shoe laces, a strait jacket and part of a prostitute's garb.
Like footgear that gradually becomes scuffed and worn with use, "Shoes" becomes more ambiguous with each scene. The premise, theme and outcome of the first segment is the clearest and most easily understood: Natalie Abbott portrays a woman attempting to get a commitment from a married man (Mathias Maas) who never removes his shiny black shoes.
Hannah Schauer Galli dominates most of the second segment as a prostitute who sometimes services men in the way the President Clinton says doesn't count as a sex act and at other times brutalizes them. Her high-heeled boots give her power over a submissive trick (Josh Thigpen) but can't protect her from her vicious pimp (Ari Green).
The final segment is the most enigmatic. Hui-Mei Chang stars as a young woman who dreams that her father becomes a "hulk." She tells the story several times. With each telling she describes him as being of a different race. Did he really have her little toes amputated? If so, why? The emotional turmoil in the first story, and the physical abuse in the second, are more immediately understood. Green, Maas and Thigpen dance bare chested in representing the girl's father.
Each segment is staged in a different area. Each area is distinctly different from the others.
Dance and dramatic stylized movement are major elements in director Utstein's approach to Maneerat's script. The program notes reveal Utstein is fascinated by the use of "movement as a means of theatrical expression," and the staging is a group effort in which the six actor/dancers improvised their individual interpretations of Maneerat's characters.
The choreography-by-committee works well enough in suggesting the nature of the relationship portrayed by Abbott and Maas; she's obsessed, he's detached from everything but quick sex. Galli, Green and Thigpen do excellent work in quickly establishing the corrosive experience of living in the life and take the concept to a dramatic and highly visual conclusion.
The three bare chested men make adequate twitching "hulks," and Chang is an engaging narrator, but the point of the final segment remains somewhat opaque.
Click for online
calendars and events.
