STAGE REVIEW
Trying to do too much with a little bit

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

•	'A Little Bit Like You' 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Feb. 9 Kumu Kahua Theatre $16-$5 536-4441

The play, now in revival at Kumu Kahua Theatre, is circular in construction and a verbal fugue on the ear. It doesn't go deep and it doesn't go wide. It simply goes around and around like the verbal brainwashing imposed on children by inarticulate, multi-generational households.

"Girls no good."

"Humbug!"

"Waste time!"

"You a little bit like me."

We are asked to excuse the characters' inability to express feelings and to connect as individuals. We are asked to accept on faith that scolding and teasing are expressions of love because these people know no other behaviors.

And we are asked to believe that interpersonal dysfunction is outweighed by genetic and spiritual connections that overcome time and death.

That is simply too much to ask.

Granted, expressing feelings is a contemporary expectation and shouldn't be projected backward on generations that were preoccupied with basic survival. But Lum's play most clearly illustrates the continued frustration of people who have not learned to communicate.

The minimal plot also travels on Japanese/Chinese racial bias.

There are four generations in this family, but only three of them are living.

Grandma (Florence Chang) slips in and out of dementia, berating her daughter (Marya Takamori-Prickett) for marrying a Chinese man who abandoned her and granddaughter Keiko (Lisa Lum). Grandma also denies that she is half-Chinese herself, the result of a liaison between Great-Grandma (Alissa Joy Lee) and the manapua man (Scot Izuka). While Grandpa (Roddy Kwock) lies on his deathbed, Keiko increasingly is haunted by the voices of her great-grandparents.

There is a great yearning for honest connection among these four generations, expressed through repetition with only minimal success. By the play's end, the characters recognize their interrelationships, but that realization is not enough to satisfy an audience.

Playwright Lum and director Dann Seki (in his directorial debut) certainly have an ear for local dialogue and mannerisms, and the cast basically is capable. But the principal roles are mostly realized in one-word adjectives. Keiko (whiny), Grandma (bitter), Grandpa (bumbling), Mamma (inconsequential), great-grandparents (earnest) and Keiko's friend — played by Kathy Hunter — (foil).

As a result, this production of "A Little Bit Like You" offers little insight, goes nowhere and takes too much time getting there.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek is The Advertiser's drama critic.