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There are times when background information can help an audience to connect fully with a play. Kumu Kahua's world-premiere production of "A Ricepaper Airplane" is one such show. An account of 20th-century Korean history would be valuable in helping play-goers make sense of events that percolate through this memorable two-act play. ‘Airplane’s’ personal tale
also true to history of warBy John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.comThe story is distilled from Gary Pak's 1998 novel and has been adapted for stage by Kumu Kahua principals Keith K. Kashiwada and John H.Y. Wat, who do a fine job in presenting the stream-of-consciousness perspective of elderly Sung Wha as he lies dying in a Honolulu hospital.
Sung Wha's thoughts wander as he recalls his tumultuous youth in Japanese-occupied Korea, the circumstances of his escape to Manchuria, his time as a proto-communist in Shanghai, life as a belligerent field hand in Hawaii and, from time to time, his dream of returning to Korea in a plane made of bamboo and rice paper.
The old man finds an earnest audience of one in his nephew, Yong Gil. At first it seems that Yong Gil is visiting primarily out of obligation, but he becomes fascinated by his uncle's stories and folk tales.
Dann Seki, long one of the most accomplished and dependable talents to be found on the Kumu Kahua stage, is in top form as the irascible old Korean. Roddy Kwock (Yong Gil/narrator), another Kumu Kahua veteran, narrates the tale in the stilted and affected sham-Asian style too often used by narrators in Kumu Kahua productions but becomes more natural when Yong Gil addresses his uncle instead of the audience.
Alvin Chuen Git Chan, seen in Kumu Kahua's landmark production of "A Language of Their Own," distinguishes himself in playing the young Sung Wha as a belligerent yet naive young man. Most of Sung Wha's experiences are grim; Chan displays his depth as a performer in making lighter moments ring true as well.
The production also benefits from the work of Vaikeola Richards, last seen as the lead in Kumu Kahua's production of "Love 3 Times," who adds strong and colorful performances in secondary roles. He turns up first as a stereotypically brutal luna (plantation overseer), then as a Filipino cab driver and finally as Blind Eddie, another stereotypical local character who figures in most of the comic moments in Act 2.
Richards' most interesting performance is his portrayal of the mysterious Uncle Bhak. Sung Wha suspects that the woodcutter is part tiger, and Richards' use of posture and movement accentuates the sense that Uncle Bhak does in fact have a supernatural feline genealogy. No individuals are credited in the program for costume design and hair styling, but those elements also add to Richards' success in portraying the tiger-man who befriends Sung Wha.
The most effective sections of the story are those depicting the brutality of Japanese rule the decade following Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910. Sung Wha and his relative Eung Whan flee after lashing out at Japanese soldiers in their village. Eung Whan heads south for Pusan and a ship bound for Hawaii. Sung Wha makes contact with the Korean underground and embarks on a slow and stealthy trek toward Manchuria.
Sung Wha's first political mentors are an innkeeper named Cho and his articulate, politically radical daughter, Hae Soon. The Japanese destroy the inn, and Hae Soon joins Sung Wha on his odyssey.
A reference to the mass slaughter of Koreans in Japan after an earthquake helps pinpoint when Sung Wha began his journey. Knowing that the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1922 provides another point of reference -- for history majors, anyway.
Sung Wha has little patience years later when UH radicals get involved in the struggle to prevent evictions in Chinatown, but Kashiwada and Wat don't treat this aspect of the story in the same depth. Is it because Sung Wha sees the students as bourgeois kids dabbling in "revolution" whereas he placed his life on the line fighting the Japanese and other oppressors?
The broader story of Sung Wha's life remains opaque as well. Sung Wha's youth ends with the destruction of his half-completed airplane sometime in the late 1920s. The only later snapshot of his life that percolates through his memories is of the Chinatown struggle more than 40 years later.
Did he give up after the airplane project foundered? Did he spend 40 years merely "surviving" in Hawaii? The answers may well be found in Pak's novel, but the Kumu Kahua adaptation leaves the audience hanging.
Where: Kumu Kahua Theatre (Kamehameha V Post Office), 46 Merchant St. 'A Ricepaper Airplane'
Presented by Kumu Kahua
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through April 14
Tickets: $16, $13 for seniors and groups, $10 for students
Call: 536-4441
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