HONOLULU THEATRE FOR YOUTH
A lazy husband turned into an ox and a young man turned into a toad are two of the colorful characters in Honolulu Theatre for Youth's "When Tiger Smoked His Pipe."
Colorful creatures
teach moral lessons
Larger than life characters -- including a feisty tiger, a blundering ox and an eccentric toad -- paraded across stage, insisting on sharing their tales even though Herman Tesoro Jr., "the storykeeper," tried to keep them "in the bag" during Honolulu Theatre for Youth's presentation of "When Tiger Smoked His Pipe."
The production featured the traditional Korean storytelling tradition of p'ansori -- a poetic style of storytelling combined with drumming.
"When Tiger Smoked His Pipe": Repeats 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter. Admission is $12 for adults; $6 for youth under18 and seniors over 60. Call 839-9885. Recommended for ages 7 and up.
Chan Park, associate professor of Korean language, literature and performance studies at Ohio State University, trained the actors in the art in order to capture the essence of the modern Korean drama that was written by Nora Okja Keller and her daughter, Tae Kathleen Keller, based on traditional folk tales.
The production began with the story, "The Tiger and the Rice Cake Moon," a tale similar to "Little Red Riding Hood." Reb Beau Allen plays a tiger that stalks a mother (Cynthia See) who is in the woods gathering food for her children. The tiger eats all of her rice cakes and then gobbles her up in one bite. Still hungry, he heads off to find a main course -- preferably her children.
The children escape the tiger by climbing up a tree and drenching the creature in sesame oil. They tie a rope around the tiger's belly, spinning him about, in a fake pursuit to help him up the tree. Their clever tactics lead the tiger to regurgitate both mother and rice cakes.
An apathetic husband learns the perils of laziness in the second story, "The Ox Mask," in which Monica Cho plays the distressed wife who receives no help from her other half. She swats her sleeping husband with her broom, referring to him as a "lazy, good for nothing bum."
After wishing for the leisurely life of an ox, a mask maker puts a spell on him. The lazy man transforms into a large ox that must plow a farmer's fields many hours a day. Wishing he were dead, he eats a supposedly poison apple, which breaks the spell. He realizes that life would have been much simpler if he had just helped his wife with a few chores.
The last story, "Tukkebi, the Toad Bridegroom," added an abundance of local humor. The tale takes place in Waipahu where a drought has consumed the lake. A fisherman catches a large toad that follows him home. My favorite character is the bouncy and colorful toad played by Squire Coldwell.
The fisherman's wife invites the toad into their home and showers him with kindness. She lets the toad sit by the fire and wear a shirt that belonged to her son, who had disappeared.
The toad falls in love with a rich girl and asks for her hand in marriage. After all, "different backgrounds make their marriages work," he says. In the end, the toad is revealed as the missing son after receiving affection from both his parents and girlfriend. Pidgin is widely used in this piece and drew laughter from the crowd.
While the kids enjoyed the colorful animal antics, adults will appreciate the local humor and storylines, some of which may have been over some children's level of understanding.
Nevertheless, Tesoro kept the pieces flowing while the audience learned the importance of passing stories through the generations.
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