at l.a.'s east west players

review
"leilani's hibiscus"
at east west players
los angeles, ca
05 october 99
reviewed by
mark jonas

Driving across downtown into Little Tokyo for a night at East West Players, I passed a couple of rescue missions. Inside the new David Henry Hwang Theater, a third rescue mission was getting underway: by sheer force of will, actor Keone Young and director Tim Dang were rescuing Jon Shirota's "Leilani's Hibiscus".

EWP's new season opens with this world premiere, a tale of true love torn apart by World War II. Much of the play's action occurs in flashback. That's appropriate, because the whole play amounts to a flashback -- a flashback to a previous generation of Asian-American theatre.

***

thru october 17 When East West Players started in 1965, it aimed to educate as well as entertain. Many of the world premieres the company staged in the 1960s and 1970s carried strong cultural and historical lessons for sons and daughters. The stories were mostly Japanese-American and Chinese-American, often about the pain of assimilation and the legacy of World War II. These themes sat just fine with EWP's core audience, which was (and still is) primarily made up of older Japanese- and Chinese-Americans. But today, younger and more ethnically varied Asian-American writers are putting out different plays -- not about what happened then, but what is happening now.

Shirota's play is stuck in "then". The playwright cannot resist teaching his audience all about what happened, and a good story only gets in the way. The story is quite interesting: it's 1960, and Yasu (Keone Young) has returned to Maui after an 18-year-absence. Decades earlier, Yasu and his brother Kama (Michael Hagiwara) emigrated from Okinawa to work profitably in the cane fields. Yasu fell in love with Leilani (Melody Butiu), a native Hawaiian.

Their love, initially hindered by ethnic prejudice and class conflict, is torn apart by World War II. Yasu goes back to Japan to serve in the Army of the Emperor, while Kama and Leilani stay behind. Eighteen years later, Yasu arrives to return the ashes of Kama and his sister-in-law Tsuyu (Dian Kobyashi) to Okinawa .... but also to face his past.

Director Dang generates intense performances from his actors, especially Young and Butiu. With his large frame and gentle delivery, Young carries the weight of a strong man indebted to his regret. His multilayered performance, especially in his scenes with Butiu and Lilia Dominguez, draws real hurt and anger from the script. Hagiwara, Kobayashi and Cathleen Chin, on the other hand, get roles that are almost entirely devoted to backstory or commentary. (Some of the backstory, come to think of it, is missing. We see Kama and Tsuyu's graves as the play opens; they both died in 1950, and neither lived to be 55. What happened? We're never given an answer.) Historical setting or not, the play needs a lot more of the here-and-now and less of the do-you-remember-when.

Akeime Mitterheimer's set doesn't help things: intended to resemble a grassy Hawaiian hillock, it has the flavor of a miniature golf course. (Truth be told, EWP's new theater poses big problems for set designers and directors: its shallow endstage and complete lack of apron call to mind a high school auditorium.)

Dang's focus and Young's stirring performance turn a history lesson into a play...if only in spurts. "Leilani's Hibiscus" is a play about the past; despite its world premiere status, it is also a play from the past.

"Leilani's Hibiscus", produced by East West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 S. Judge John Aiso St., Little Tokyo; Thurs-Sun through Oct. 17. $15-30. 800.233.3123.

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