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Mothers and daughters
By Nadine Kam
kept ‘Joy Luck’
director honest
Star-Bulletin"Some people barely survive one mother, let alone four," says Harry Wong III, who knew the job of directing Kumu Kahua's updated staging of "The Joy Luck Club" was dangerous when he took it.
As director, he had control of the production, but when it came to the personal stuff, he'd get scoldings about his diet, clothes and hygiene.
"They'd say, 'You're eating potato chips again? You're not eating right.' I don't shave when I'm directing so they'd say, 'Why don't you shave. You never know when you're going to meet somebody.'
Wong, who is of Chinese, Hawaiian, Japanese and Portuguese descent, said, "Women are so strong in Chinese families, I don't know why. More than any other group, they're the bosses. I've seen them shoving men out the door."
SUMMER ENCORE
What: "The Joy Luck Club"
Strong women are at the heart of the drama, based on Susan Kim's adaptation of Amy Tan's novel, which was made into a feature film. The tale follows four young contemporary women whose lives are intertwined with the history and circumstances of their mothers' lives.
Although Wong has made enough changes so returning "moms" Charlotte Dias, Elissa Duke and Blossom Lam have had to break old patterns of behavior, he says he's tried to remain true to Reiko Ho's interpretation. Ho directed the production last fall.
"I avoided looking at the old video, the movie and rereading the book. I focused on what the adaptation was saying, which is the inescapable connection between mothers and daughters.
"There's so much more a mother could hope for her daughter than her son. It was possible for him to succeed in China as well as in America. If he worked hard, he studied, he was set.
"For girls in China, they had so much working against them. The mothers felt that in America they could be independent, freer, and have the choice of going to school, of doing something new and different."
Wong enjoyed witnessing the interaction between older and younger actors on stage. "It's so great, because most productions are geared toward one or the other," he said.
"And it's weird, because they're all like mothers and daughters in the way they respond and react to one another."
The storyline of the play does differ from the novel, and that poses a problem when people expect to see scenes that have been changed or omitted, but he is unaplogetic.
"I think they can get more with a different interpretation," he said.
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