Planet cries out for help in 'Paving'

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic

•	'The Last Paving Stone' 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, through March 22 Leeward Community College $12, $6 839-9885

There is unconsidered development. The entire Earth has been paved over, except for one small spot. The smooth, hard surface makes it easier to ride wooden scooters, which, under the law, everyone must own. Raw materials are greedily stockpiled by a character, who hides all the remaining trees in her basement, thereby controlling natural resources for personal profit.

A small but powerful elite makes all the rules and determines who will be given real tasks and who will be consigned to a dismal future working on the assembly line.

The central character is Ito (Nara Cardenas), an unspoiled young girl with enormous ears who is able to hear the earth speaking.

Today is Ito's birthday and she is allowed one wish, but she must wait to make it until after her father, the master paver, has covered up the last patch of open soil.

Ito's best friend is Jassmin (Monica Cho), a girl with a large nose able to smell out lies. Together, they attempt to keep the Earth from being smothered by rock and concrete.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the production is the musical voice of the Earth, created by guitarist Henry Kapono in a bluesy style with a hint of Hawaiian overtones. The earth speaks to Ito, and the resulting musical conversations clearly take on the emotional quality of real speech.

To an adult audience, the action plays out fairly predictably, but the pacing and clarity of Mark Lutwak's direction seems about right for a young elementary school audience.

There are small moments of pure fun. The earth's music makes Ito want to dance uncontrollably and choose "fast walking" over mechanized travel. What wiggly second grader has not had the same sensations? Jassmin's sensitive nose responds with great disgust to the stench of an adult lie, the equivalent of a rude bodily odor that can throw a youngster into stitches of laughter.

More serious action includes a debilitating silence when the earth is finally covered, leaving the children no longer able to make up rhymes.

Company and guest actors BullDog, Cynthia See, Aito Steele and Kelly Williams round out the cast.

Casey Cameron's costumes have a tribal flavor with some futuristic touches, but Joseph Dodd's monolithic set with "Aida" overtones is enough to satisfy an audience of any age. A large scaffold is poised to lower a huge block of granite and smother the last vestige of living earth. Behind towers a stone wall inscribed with the laws of the land in foot-tall letters.

When the wall divides in the finale to reveal a patch of green grass, it is a delightful surprise.

In sum, "The Last Paving Stone" is a futuristic fable with a predictable happy ending that should satisfy a young audience.