‘Mystery Play’ Stays Undeveloped

“In a mystery show, death always means the show has just begun,” Gerry (Jeanne Sakata alternating with Kim Montelibano) tells us in the opening moments of Garrett Omata’s “Mystery Play.” Yet the real mystery of this inaugural show at the Actor’s Playhouse in Long Beach is what to make of this mess of muddled ideas.

A dysfunctional Asian American family is unhappily reunited. The father, a minister, has died and the play opens at his funeral. Was he killed for sinister reasons? Is his missing gold pen a clue? Did his changing ideas about God, grace and faith cause his untimely demise?

Or does Gerry, his daughter and one of the staff writers on a television mystery series, simply have an overactive imagination?

Omata outlines a family filled with uncomfortable secrets: the conservative seminary student son (Shaun Shimoda), the longhaired “independent thinker of the family” Malcolm (Marvin Bang alternating with Victor Ho), the devout but troubled mother (Dian Kobayashi) and the estranged daughter, Gerry. He asks if life mimics mystery stories. Is every tiny event a clue--an integral part of God’s plan? Or do things sometimes just happen?

As intriguing as this philosophical questioning may be, the play falls flat. None of the characters really engages us. None of the themes about God or his mysterious ways or the dark family secrets revealed really pays off in the end. Lapses in logic further distract and deflate the suspense.

Perhaps burdened by the March 1997 suicide of the young playwright, director Darrell Kunitomi gives a bleak, humorless rendering that is at odds with the light, ironic ending.

Unfortunately Omata did not live long enough to develop this glimmer of an interesting philosophical play.

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* “Mystery Play,” Actor’s Playhouse, 1409 E. 4th St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 9. $15. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.