This restaging of Edward Sakamoto's play opens a retrospective season for the University of Hawai'i, where it was first produced in 1982. The play has had several local and Mainland productions, and has evolved into the middle piece in a trilogy, which was presented in its entirety by Kumu Kahua Theatre.

If you've seen "Manoa Valley" in one of its earlier productions, you probably remember it as "the chicken hekka play."

On the eve of statehood in 1959, the central character, Tosh Kamiya, is readying to host a party for 40 people. Most are employees in his successful construction business. But close family members begin to arrive at his home just after breakfast. One of them, Tosh's older brother Aki, brings with him the ultimate hostess gift — a live chicken.

Undaunted by this sudden and unplanned addition to the menu, Tosh's wife, Fumiko, beheads the bird with a cleaver, boils water to pluck its feathers, and transforms it into a miracle dish for the expected guests.

This bit of culinary magic sets us up for the Hawai'i of half a century ago — a simpler time when city dwellers in Manoa Valley had not yet strayed too far from their country origins, but could begin to feel the sweeping changes that would follow after admission to the union.

Tosh feels the change strongly — his business is going to prosper. But he is unable to make the personal changes that are bubbling beneath the surface of his comfortable family. Son Spencer wants to leave Hawai'i to study and work on the Mainland. Daughter Laura is ambitious and wants more than making babies with her laid-back husband, Toku.

As Tosh and Aki talk about leaving their father's Kona coffee farm for the bright lights of Honolulu, Tosh comes to grips with accepting — and supporting — the children he can no longer browbeat into line.

Director Glenn Cannon helps bring real life to the stereotypical characters.

Stan Egi is the blustering, smug patriarch Tosh. Alvin Chan is the lazy, whining Spencer whose heart is in aerospace. Kim Chan is the bossy older sister Laura, and Tom Michelsen is her husband, Toku, passive enough to change his pants on order.

Chris Doi is the cousin with a law degree, political ambitions, and a haole wife from Michigan — played demurely by Nina Buck as she mispronounces street names and tries to fit in. Sue Nada and Kristen Nonaka play Tosh's wife and younger daughter.

Perhaps the most fully realized role goes to Darryl Tsutsui as Uncle Aki. He drinks too much Primo, plays a sweet 'ukulele, and has a charming willingness to accept uncertainty —which makes him stand out among family members who have memorized their life roles. Kati Kuroda has some nice moments as his wife, Tomi, especially a wordless seductive vamp that Sakamoto has added to this production to punch up the Act One curtain.