Tiger might not grab you by the tale
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Drama Critic
| • | 'When Tiger Smoked His Pipe'
1:30 and 4:30 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 18, Oct. 25, Nov. 1 Richardson Theatre, Fort Shafter $12, $6 839-9885 |
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There are no surprises or distinctive moments in this telling of three Korean folk tales by Nora Okja Keller and Tae Kathleen Keller. Mark Lutwak's direction and a spirited HTY ensemble cast give it some life, but the production breaks into three pieces that are only loosely held together by a common thread.
The unifying element is the Story Teller (Hermen Tesoro Jr.) — or, more appropriately, the Story Keeper, since this character doesn't want to share these stories. But the main characters literally insist on escaping from the large bag he drags behind him. They have a life of their own that they insist on expressing.
The Story Keeper sets up the show by describing an ancient time when the tiger smoked a pipe and talked with humans. Each story begins with beating on a large drum and an audience chant of "looong agooo."
Once the cat is out of the bag, there's no getting him back inside.
The first tale is a "Little Red Riding Hood" parallel, with the Tiger (Reb Beau Allen) stalking a mother (Cynthia See) through the woods. She distracts him with rice cakes until he gobbles her up, then proceeds to her house intending to do the same to her children (Monica Cho Coldwell and Squire Coldwell).
The kids escape up a tree, which they drench with sesame oil to prevent pursuit. Eventually they tie a rope around Tiger's belly, causing him to vomit up their mother — safe, but smelling bad and with crumbs of rice cakes in her hair.
The second character to emerge from the Story Keeper's bag is an ox. But the ox began as a lazy and rather calculatingly stupid husband. A mask maker's spell turns him into the large and powerful ox, who is worked hard plowing fields for his farmer master.
Deciding he'd rather be dead, the ox eats a special apple that breaks the spell and returns the man, now changed in spirit from the discovery of his "inner ox."
A comic local twist on the last story sets it in Waipahu, where a long drought has turned the trees and gardens into parched red dirt. A fisherman catches a large toad, which follows him home.
There, the fisherman's wife treats the toad kindly, inviting him to warm himself by the fire and wrapping him in a shirt left behind by their son, who has disappeared.
Pidgin expressions spike up the dialog in this piece. The toad is attracted to the daughter of a rich family. "She da one!" he proclaims and wonders whether a cross-species marriage would be unacceptable because he is "adopted."
But the rains come, the toad is changed back into the missing son, and the final play on words transforms "ever" to "'Ewa" and back to "Waipahu."
Ultimately, the Story Keeper loses control over his stories, which must be allowed to be told and to change with time.
There's some charm in this production, with larger-than-life characters and a deliberate pace that keeps the kids focused and on track. But it emerges by the numbers and with few special moments.
