STAGE REVIEW : Storyteller Stirs Myth, Memory

While many San Diego art institutions embrace multicultural diversity in their programming, the voice of the Asian-American artist has been often overlooked.

Brenda Wong Aoki’s solo show “Obake!” offers a window to the untapped riches of her Chinese/Japanese-American heritage.

“Obake!,” a San Diego Repertory Theatre production at the Lyceum Space, is theater in its simplest form--storytelling, a form Aoki has mastered well. Dressed in black on a black stage, occasionally using a chair or a pole, Aoki tells five stories drawn from mythology, literature, fables and her own life--four of them from a woman’s point of view--each of them tinged with a contemporary, humanist perspective.

Aoki begins with “Black Hair,” a tale adapted from Japanese mythology that she subtitles--with a sly grin--the story of “women who love too much.” It’s the haunting story of what happens when a samurai warrior deserts his devoted wife.

“Dancing in California,” adapted from the Hisaye Yamamoto short story “Miss Sasagawara,” tells of a Japanese-American ballerina from California, struggling to maintain her sanity in one of the Japanese internment camps set up by the U.S. government after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The antics of The Monkey King, drawn from Chinese fables, is a lively rendition of the Monkey King’s battle against the gods and goddesses in heaven. A woman whose passion transformed her into a snake makes “The Bell of Dojoji”--an adaptation of Noh and Kabuki plays--hiss with passion. And for “Grandpa,” Aoki draws upon the memories of her own Chinese immigrant grandfather in California.

Directed by Jael Weisman, Aoki encompasses the comic and the tragic with fine, quick, delicate gestures, using everything from her expressive hands and face to her long, sweeping black hair that she knots to show restraint in some scenes and unleashes to display wild abandon in others.

Where she invariably succeeds--as any good storyteller must--is in making relevant and magical even the most faraway tales.

Aoki is performing “Obake!” in repertory with “The Queen’s Garden,” Aoki’s autobiographical solo show. On Nov. 14 and Nov. 21, she will also perform a family show designed for children, “Tales of the Pacific Rim,” drawn from classic and contemporary tales.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

OBAKE!

A one-woman show written and performed by Brenda Wong Aoki. Director is Jael Weisman. Lighting by Jose Lopez. Pre-show music by Mark Izu. Stage manager is Sonja C. Anderson. At 8 p.m. Nov. 6, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 25, 8 p.m. Nov. 17, 20 and 21 and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Nov. 25. Tickets are $18-$24 depending on day and time of performance. At the Lyceum Space, 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego, 235-8025.