Stage Review
Mystery around 'Elves' effective

A couple of important things work especially well in the problem play by the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, "Afternoon of the Elves." Director Mark Lutwak draws nicely shaded performances from the adult actors playing elementary school children, and set designer Tobin Alexandra-Young creates an innovative and effective way to reveal multiple settings.

The play is adapted for the stage by Y York from the original book by Janet Taylor Lisle. The story takes an uncompromising look at issues of friendship and personal responsibility from the point of view of a child who doesn’t fully understand them.

The central character is Hillary (Monica Cho), who is new to her neighborhood and her fourth-grade class. She seems to be fitting in well, but when the two most popular girls in school (Cat Gonzaga and Kristin VanBodegraven) commandeer her time and demand that she stop being friends with the little girl next door, Hillary is faced with a difficult dilemma.

Worse, it’s a double dilemma, because Hillary learns that the rejected Sara-Kate (Nara Springer) is single-handedly trying to care for her ill mother, and is torn between protecting her friend and getting adult help.

York’s script slowly and carefully reveals a potentially oppressive or fearsome plot line, allowing the situation to deepen gradually and without undue shock effect. Lutwak’s direction sensitively follows suit. As a result, the audience is guided to an awareness of the situation through the eyes of the main character, and it is a successful dramatic move never to show us everything at once.

With a stroke of creative set design, Alexandra-Young takes the same approach with the scenery.

Alexandra-Young divides the stage with three rows of black panels, which slide from side to side to reveal portions of the overall setting. While action continues in one, scenery can be changed behind, and even the entire breadth of a contiguous area is never revealed fully. It’s a designer master-stroke that combines the subtlety of Japanese sliding walls with the old Broadway tradition of cutting the stage into thirds with flying drops.

More importantly, the technique of selectively revealing stage pictures powerfully supports the author’s and director’s intent.

Cho succeeds at balancing her character between opposing demands. Springer shows us a disturbed little girl, but not a pathological one, and Gonzaga and VanBodegraven are simply full of themselves as headstrong fourth-graders. Most importantly, all the women suggest tangible childlike personalities without damaging the illusion that their characters are, indeed, only children. Cynthia See and Herman Tesoro Jr. take on the adult roles.

There’s also mystery and charm behind the serious message, and the question of whether the elves in the title truly exist is appropriately never resolved. This may be a problem play, but it chooses not to destroy all illusions.

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