COURTESY OF KUMU KAHUA THEATRE
Count Moreno ('Aina Rapoza, right) chokes Edwin Booth (Tom Dwight).
Five-card drawing
room rompKumu Kahua regulars play
roles borrowed from history
In the aftermath of last month's fretting over where local playwrights find inspiration, Alan Sutterfield wants it known that although he may not be the first person to ever write a play about people playing poker, he knows of no other similarities between his play that Kumu Kahua is producing and any other plays about card-playing Hawaiian kings that may be out there.
Poker King
Kumu Kahua presents "King Kalakaua's Poker Game"Where: Kumu Kahua Theater, 46 Merchant St.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays, through June 15
Tickets: $5 to $16
Call: 536-4441
"King Kalakaua's Poker Game," which opened last night, is "a Victorian drawing room comedy," Sutterfield said, explaining that he became interested in the genre when he appeared in Joyce Maltby's production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Hawaii Pacific University three years ago.
"I admired the structure, but I would challenge anyone to sit down and compare the scripts and find anything except a genre as a parallel."
His play takes place in Kalakaua's boat house, where the king plays poker with famed American actor Edwin Booth and a kaleidoscopic mix of characters that includes a German count, Hawaii's first Chinese picture bride, a male impersonator from Kaua'i and Queen Kapiolani. The cast consists almost entirely of Kumu Kahua regulars -- Charlotte Dias, Norman Gibson, Moses Goods, Wil Kahele, Blossom Lam, Moani Miller and 'Aina Rapoza. Tom Dwight makes his Kumu Kahua debut as Booth and Po'okela Award-winner Betty Burdick is the director.
"The play is in good hands," Sutterfield said regarding Burdick's direction.
He said that the poker games and other activities that take place in or near the Royal Boathouse are products of his imagination. Some are based on historical events, others not, and some of the storylines juxtapose different eras. For instance, Edwin Booth did, in fact, visit Hawaii and gave a performance of "Richard III," but did so in 1855 -- not 1882, as depicted in the play.
"I took a huge artistic liberty there, but again it's intended to be a fictional story. I don't want the historians to think that I'm representing this as a historical fact," Sutterfield said.
COURTESY OF KUMU KAHUA THEATRE
Thespian Edwin Booth (Tom Dwight) shares some histrionics in "King Kalakaua's Poker Game: A Romantic Comedy of Victorian Hawaii."
"(The play is) inspired by the Kalakaua era. Half of the cast is fictitious and half of the cast is based in the historical record, and my playwright's note gets into detail in the program. The folks who were based in the historical record (with the exception of Edwin Booth) would have been in the same room together several times, (but) I have no idea if they would have played poker together."
And would they have played poker at the boat house, known more recently as The Mews on Mission Lane?
"I thought it would be a natural place for a guy to play poker, so I just sort of ran with that idea," Sutterfield said, explaining the shoreline has been extended much farther makai from where it was 121 years ago.
SUTTERFIELD may be better known locally as an actor than a playwright, but Kumu Kahua's 1995 staging of "World War NIIhau," a potentially controversial play about what happened after a Japanese fighter pilot crash-landed on Ni'ihau following the attack on Pearl Harbor, established his reputation as a playwright with an interest in history. Sutterfield says that a couple of historians came to see "World War NIIhau" during its run, but no one took issue with his decision to tell the story.
"(With) that one, I tried to stick a lot closer to historical references, in terms of the overall arc of the events. The (characters') motivations and the conversation I supplied, but to me it was a fascinating story. It already had a beginning, a middle and an end ... I just found it fascinating.
"I'm not a real prolific writer. I think this is my fifth play in 14 years. I just think it's a terrific thing that we have Kumu Kahua in the community. I would never have written a play here in Hawaii if it wasn't for the fact that I knew Kumu was there and I knew I had some reasonable shot at a production. They're my inspiration more than anything else. They're in support of local playwrights and, to me, that's a tremendous opportunity."
Sutterfield says that he sees Kalakaua as a "well-liked person" who enjoyed life, despite the political battles that were forced upon him, and who supported and encouraged the arts of music, chant and hula.
"He was just more lively and more colorful than some of his predecessors. I wanted to write a script that was King Kalakaua in a state of grace, and that somehow worked its way into King Kalakaua at the poker table, sitting down with his friends to enjoy himself. ... He's not the major character in the play at all, but I think when he's there, I try to give the indication that here was a guy who enjoyed life. He had as complicated a life an any monarch, and he had his enemies, but he was a guy who enjoyed life, and people enjoyed his company."
Now that "King Kalakaua's Poker Game" is up and running, Sutterfield is hoping to get back on stage as an actor. (In addition to his stellar performance in "The Importance of Being Earnest," he appeared as the narrator and male lead in HPU's staging of "James Joyce's The Dead," opposite Eden-Lee Murray in 2001.)
"I've got a certain window of opportunity as a leading man in the next decade or so, and I'm certainly looking forward to it," he said.
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