after the quake
|
Tse, front, Nakasone, Tucker
Photo by Kevin Berne
|
By January Riddle
“Tell me a story,” is a child’s common bedtime request and the beginning situation in after the quake, a joint production of La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre currently playing at the Mandell Weiss Forum. The play’s narrative is actually two stories, adapted by director Frank Galati from Haruki Murakami’s book of the same title and combined to produce one theatrical myth. Although James Schuette’s representational set and James F. Ingalls beautiful lighting showcase the first-rate performances of the actors and musicians, all together they are not enough to compensate for the flawed combo experiment.
The result of Galati’s story sandwich is often humorous, occasionally sad, and somewhat confusing. It is very much like the improvised product of an adult faced with creating an original fairy tale before turning out the lights. Typically, the beginning holds promise.
Like many a free-spirited grown-up responding to a youngster’s story request, Junpei opens with a fantastical animal, a bear that has no friends, and improvises a yarn intended only to bridge little Sala’s time to dreamland. As many a grownup knows, however, children possess their own curiosity, and it is a wily trick to maintain a story in the face of a bright child’s questions and life observances.
Sala’s queries prompt Junpei to invent answers that keep the narrative moving. Although it has no obvious direction, the story within this play’s story is entertaining. It’s fun because most adults can relate to Junpei’s situation of being put on the spot by a clever child. It is one of the play’s highlights, thanks to the irrepressible cuteness of Kayla Lauren Mei Mi Tucker (Sala) and the confident risk-taking of Hanson Tse (Junpei).
It is the lack of risk-taking that has put Junpei in mourning for a love not realized, as we see soon enough in the characters of Takatsuki (a vigorous Andrew Pang) and Sayoko (a charming Aiko Nakasone), the other members of Junpei’s college friendship trio. The bold Takatsuki takes the alpha male position, then woos and marries the sweet Sayoko. Relegated to “best buddy” status, Junpei takes up writing, creating stories more successful than his life.
Based on the original tale “honey pie,” the predictable love story that unfolds is sweet, but not satisfying on its own. Incorporating the metaphorical tale stemming from the original “super-frog saves tokyo” should have added the right flavor. But, like a mismanaged torte that turns to pudding, the added ingredient made a muddle of it all.
Director Frank Galati had said this was a play without an arc. But the dearth leaves the audience either guessing where the high point is, and, in this case, usually to guess wrong or to belay the entire exercise and simply go with whatever flow there may be in the plot line.
The flow is as whimsical as a meadow brook, sometimes rippling along, at others meandering lazily, an indecipherable current. Narrations switch back and forth, arrhythmically, like a dramatic form of Pong. What is the motivation for letting Junpei begin a sentence to be completed by Frog, for example? It’s distracting at best, irritating at worst, not enlightening for sure. But maybe that is the point--to tell a tale, actually two tales, without a goal in mind, but instead to showcase characters.
If so, the most success belongs to Keong Sim and Andrew Pang, who play Frog and Katagiri, respectively. Sim is delightfully astute as the literary amphibian trying to save Tokyo from an earthquake as devastating as the real-life Kobe in 1995. (Mara Blumenfeld’s costumes are right on.) Pang’s hilarious exaggeration in portraying a dull businessman who finds a giant frog at his kitchen table quoting Dostoyevsky and Hemingway makes up in entertainment what is lacking in the mashing together of two stories.
As entertainment, the play is well worth most of its 80 minutes. There are wonderful scenes and hilarious moments in this production. (Sayoko’s bra trick is the best example.) There are heroes and sad-sacks; there are lovers and losers, and there is a Shirley Temple-rival, little girl actor. If only the story itself (themselves?) were better told, it would deserve repeating.
after the quake plays through August 26 at the Mandell Weiss Forum at La Jolla Playhouse on the campus of UCSD, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive.
Performances are Tues-Weds. At 7:30; Thurs-Fri-Sat. at 8:00; Sun. at 7:00. Matinees Sat.-Sun. at 2:00.
Tickets are $28-$60, with discounts for seniors, students and military.
Reservations at 1-858-550-1010 or www.lajollaplayhouse.org.
|
