A Hawaiian ‘Stew’ at East West Players

A high school reunion--Hawaiian style--is the setting for Ed Sakamoto’s “Stew Rice,” which just opened at East West Players.

“It’s my fourth ‘Hawaii play,’ ” noted Sakamoto, who grew up in Honolulu. “In them, I try to recapture a time, a place, a people--give audiences an accurate picture of how we were, how we are, how we lived, thought, what we liked, didn’t like. So, hopefully, it reflects a truth. Also, I use pidgin English. Many Hawaiians speak it among friends and family, but among their business associates, they use standard English. I use both.”

Sakamoto, who’s written nine plays in 14 years (including 1986’s popular and critically acclaimed fantasy “Chikamatsu’s Forest”), has deep feelings about the need for Asian-American work.

“Asian-American theater didn’t really begin in earnest till the ‘70s,” said the playwright (who makes his living as an L.A. Times copy editor). “There was nothing till then. Even in the early ‘70s, there was only one Asian-American theater: East West Players. So we’re writing about things we never got to voice in that gap of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s--to take care of that time, have it expressed. It’s always fairly hard to get American theaters to do an Asian-American play. But now they’re doing it more. People seem to want to broaden their horizons.”

Fans of John Bishop’s stark and disturbing “Borderline” (Skylight, 1985) take note: Its director, Robert Bailey, is back with a new thriller, Dalton Younger’s “Anacardium.” It opens today at the Court Theatre.

“ ‘Anacardium’ is a Latin word meaning ‘cashew nut’--which is a clue,” offered the director, who, before this run, workshopped the play at New York’s Circle Rep lab. “The script was sent to me by the playwright. He’d seen ‘Borderline’ several times and thought I was the right person to do this. It does tend toward the dark side of human nature. But Dalton has constructed a drama with a considerable degree of surprise, so I’m loathe to (divulge) too much information.”

Bailey did assent, however, to a brief storyline.

“The first act gives out a lot of clues, but they’re subtle,” he warned. “Basically, a man takes in a mysterious stranger as a roommate, which leads to an evening in which tensions mount steadily for no apparent reason--till it’s revealed they may be linked by a crime committed in the past. From there, it develops into a deeper confrontation involving justice and retribution. It’s Pinteresque in that there’s tension and you’re unaware why. In this play, though, you do find out what the tension is.”

CRITICAL CROSS FIRE: A revival of Joe Orton’s 1967 “What the Butler Saw” recently opened at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.

The Times’ Dan Sullivan found it “a purer play than ‘Loot’ or ‘Entertaining Mr. Sloane,’ which is not to say that it is any less randy. But it comes closer to the geometry of pure farce, as in Oscar Wilde, as in burlesque comedy. The setting is a posh nuthouse run by a certain Dr. Prentice (Christopher Neame). He is interviewing a winsome young thing (Jane Windsor) who aspires to be his stenographer. Obviously it will be necessary to examine her qualifications. Simply step behind the screen, my dear. . . .”

Richard Stayton, in the Herald-Examiner, applauded the staging as “so deliciously perverse, so disturbingly provocative, so dementedly on target. Simply seeing this amorality play done at all is cause for relief; seeing farce done this intelligently is cause for celebration. . . . After some initial faltering, Marowitz’s direction is realistic, precise, almost bitterly cold. The heart of Orton’s art is cynical calculation--all is for sale, from flesh to stocks to identities.”

From the Daily Breeze’s Sandra Kreiswirth: “Charles Marowitz was also at the helm of the London premiere of ‘Loot’ in 1966. Surprisingly, and to his credit, Marowitz, who sometimes likes to mix things up a bit theatrically, has delivered a rather straightforward production of Orton’s play, which reveals itself as pure and perfect farce. . . . It’s more than a giggle. Orton’s words are sharp and unyielding.”

The Daily News’ Tom Jacobs tagged it “a wonderfully perverted holiday gift to Los Angeles. In this period of peace on earth and good will towards men, here is a play that celebrates love in all its forms--especially those which have traditionally gotten bad press, such as incest and necrophilia. . . . The cast’s timing is far from perfect, and some of the English accents tend to come and go. But overall this is a solid production, and while Neame is a bit too low key, Dakin Matthews is superb.”

Kathleen O’Steen, in Daily Variety, was unamused: “Poor Joe Orton. First bludgeoned to death, and now this. The playwright’s dazzling comedy has been directed by Charles Marowitz with all the subtlety of a whoopee cushion. Marowitz gets laughs--the play is too funny to miss them--but the laughter has no reverberation, no substance. Audiences may leave LATC thinking they’ve seen a fair representation of Orton, but all they’re getting is the bottom layer of a complex, brilliant work.”

From the L.A. Weekly’s Maryl Jo Fox: “The satire on psychiatry is much more amusing than the sexual politics, which are so juvenile as to remind one of Benny Hill. (Were we really this immature in 1967?) Though it (originally) created a stir for its homosexual references, the play is dated and easy to dismiss. Nevertheless, under Charles Marowitz’s skilled direction, this production is superbly silly, a tonic for those who hanker for unadulterated frippery and nothing more. The cast is excellent; particularly noteworthy are Jane Carr’s wife and Dakin Matthews’ inspector.”