HTY’s ‘Dis/Troy’ has
action, comedy
It would be difficult to come up with a more entertaining and accessible entry-level treatment of "The Iliad" than playwright Yokanaan Kearns provides with "Dis/Troy" as presented in Tenney Theatre by Honolulu Theatre for Youth.
Four actors energetically play 10 characters between them. Realistic battle scenes staged by fight choreographer Tony Pisculli provide plenty of action, while the cross-dressing antics of Louie Hung, Janice Terukina and Herminigildo Tesoro add broad comedy.
"Dis/Troy": Presented by Honolulu Theatre for Youth at Tenney Theatre at St. Andrew's Cathedral, at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays through March 20. Tickets are $12; $6 for people under 19 and over 60; recommended for age 10 and older. Call 839-9885.
Through it all, however, Homer's underlying themes of duty, courage and honor are never far from the surface. It's all about Achilles as the Greek hero/antihero wrestles with pride, arrogance and the knowledge that he is fated to die "unheroically" at the hands of "a kid with an arrow."
Kearns offers HTY's teenage target audience of kids two other challenging concepts to consider: One is that soldiers should face battle bravely; the other is that although we may demonize our enemies, that soldier on the other side of the battlefield is in fact just another human being trying to do his best for his family, home and country.
That's a radical concept for Americans these days, but HTY director Mark Lutwak and his cast make the logic of it inescapable even while retelling a tale almost 3,000 years old.
Louie Hung stars as the flawed hero Achilles, with Reb Beau Allen playing both Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks, and Hector, the champion of the Trojans. As the story opens, Agamemnon has been informed that his soldiers will continue to die unheroically of plague until he returns his comfort woman to her father. Achilles urges Agamemnon to make that sacrifice for the good of the war effort but finds his argument used against him when Agamemnon agrees to do so on condition that he gets "the redhead," Achilles' comfort woman, as a replacement. Now it's Achilles who's being pressured into making a sacrifice!
Achilles grudgingly agrees to give "the redhead" to Agamemnon but prays to Zeus asking that Agamemnon be defeated by the Trojans. Achilles then sits out the war sulking in his tent while Hector leads the Trojans to victories over the Greeks.
Achilles' best friend, Patroclus (Tesoro) then asks permission to borrow Achilles' armor to fight Hector. Even teenagers unfamiliar with "The Iliad" can probably anticipate how Patroclus' duel with Hector is going to end.
Meanwhile, two other stories are playing out. In Troy, Hector's wife, Andromache (Terukina), and his father, King Priam of Troy (Tesoro), pray for a Trojan victory but reveal that they have both had horrifying dreams in which Hector is killed and his body dishonored. And, on Mount Olympus, several gods and goddesses watch the slaughter with all the compassion of kids watching two hapless captive crayfish do battle in a bucket.
Having male actors perform as campy caricatures of women is a trite and tired tradition in local entertainment, but it works on two levels here. The portrayals of Aphrodite (Hung) and Hera (Tesoro) underscore the frivolity with which the deities regard the life-and-death struggles of the mortals who pray to them.
Terukina proves to be a fine physical comedienne with her portrayal of the childish, dim-witted god of war Ares, the son of Zeus and Hera. Ares fears his father and wants to please his mother but is easily manipulated by Aphrodite, the seductive goddess of sex and/or love. Ares, Hera and Aphrodite bicker over the casualty lists, attempt to peek into the future and intercept prayers to Zeus, and try to get Zeus' support for "their" side in the war (Hera supports the Greeks; Aphrodite, the Trojans).
A scene in which Hera attempts to seduce Zeus provides another well-played moment of broad physical comedy.
In contrast, Hector's farewell to his wife and infant son is a touching and very human moment that grounds the story with a reminder of the human cost of war. Hector has good reason to anticipate that he will not survive the battle, yet he goes anyway.
Hung gives the most complex performance as Homer's antihero -- proud, arrogant and reluctant to fight even after Agamemnon returns "the redhead." Achilles takes his time killing Hector, then amuses himself for hours by dragging the corpse behind his chariot in violation of battlefield etiquette of the time.
Only when Priam comes to the Greek camp as a "supplicant" begging the return of his son's remains is Achilles able to recognize the humanity of his enemies and put aside his fears about the prophesied circumstances of his own death.
Lutwak defuses any potential teenage aversion to sitting through an assigned school day experience by having the cast members open the show by introducing themselves in semicomic style, explain the characters they will be playing and then perform a lengthy martial arts-style dance. Electronic music composed by Babatunji Heath also keeps the performance in the present while emphasizing scene changes.
Although HTY is aiming "Dis/Troy" at teenagers, the bloodless violence and comic content makes it fine fare for preteens already steeped in televised and video-game combat, while adults may also enjoy the humor in Kearns' script and the quality of the cast's performance.
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