THEATRE & DANCE
PRIMETIME SERIES!
In the world �MORAL� illuminates, families commit suicide over unpaid refrigerator loans, office workers become soldiers, and one struggling family tries to maintain their sanity. Mother makes daily trips to the liquor shop; Father wages corporate war; Grandmother hears voices that say her grandsons hate her. Life in the big city consumes this nuclear family on a set inspired by Tokyo�s Shibuya Crossing with its fortress of billboards and neon. Japanese pop music, urban noise, innovative lighting effects and a modern-traditional costume fusion complement the short scenes that mimic the way the mind jumps from memory to memory. �MORAL� shows us the cracks in the facade of the big city. Audiences will not want to miss this contemporary black comedy about Tokyo, consumerism, and urban existence.
�MORAL� was first performed in 1984 by Kisaragi Koharu�s theatre company Gekidan NOISE in Tokyo. Her work was a revelation. Rather than expounding on the Japanese economic miracle, she exposed the destruction of human contact caused by mass consumerism and big city life. She was the founder of the Asian Women Playwrights� Conference and active in women�s rights and children�s education. Kisagari died suddenly in 2000 of a cerebral hemorrhage, survived by a husband and young child.
Director and co-translator Colleen Lanki lived in Tokyo from 1995-2001, working as actor, director of Kee Company (a collaborative bilingual theatre group), choreographer, and student of noh theatre and kabuki dance. In contrast, she was also a voice actor on the Japanese �Iron Chef� cooking show and a character voice in many popular video games. Her award-winning co-translator TSUNEDA Keiko was among the original cast of the play, in the role of Mother.
Tickets for �MORAL� go on sale Monday, September 29 at the Kennedy Theatre Box Office. Tickets may be purchased in person or charged-by-phone at 956-7655 (v/t) Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Ticket prices are $10 regular, $8 seniors, military, UH faculty/staff, non-UHM students, $3 UHM students with validated Fall 2003 UHM photo ID. For more information, charge-by-phone, or disability access, call the Kennedy Theatre Box office at 956-7655 (v/t).
Moral
When: October 1, 2, 3, 4 at 8pm and 5 at 2pm
Where: UHM's Kennedy Theatre - Earle Ernst Lab Theatre
Cost: $10 regular, $8 non-UHM Students, seniors, military, UH Faculty/staff,
$3 UHM students with validated Fall 2003 UHM ID
