later productions

Cruel Theatre

The Cenci: A Tragedy of Rape and Murder

Cruel Theatre staged The Cenci: A Tragedy of Rape and Murder with the Lizard Loft at Mark’s Garage. An Artaudian staging and adaptation of Shelley’s text (lines re-arranged so all action occurred onstage, the audience sat in a circular formation allowing the actors to move around them, behind them.) The Cenci was given two counter-parts/assistants of evil--instead of beating or hitting, he could command servants to commit brutalities for him, wordlessly. The play began with the Cenci being fed cherries and steak while a half naked man with a bag over his head awaited being anally raped.

The cast of the Cenci: A Tragedy of Rape and Murder (subtitled in hopes of ticket sales J ) included: Christy Hauptman, Nicolas Logue, Danel Verdugo, Gilbert Molina, Chris Doi, Ryan Sueoka, Doug Upp, Lisa Nielsen, Andrew Valentine, Andy Valencia, Chris Cappelletti

4.48 Psychosis

4.48 Psychosis (with the Lizard Loft at Mark’s Garage, also a UHM MFA thesis production) - Brilliant highly visual and physical staging of Kane’s final opus before her own suicide. Three actors battled over control of the main character (holding down the self-love character and cutting his arm--but it is the protagonist’s arm which bled.) Lights went green for heavy psychosis moments; the protagonist was separated from the character playing her ’loving self’ and was constantly circled by the dark voices in her head. Finally, in the end the protagonist paints herself black in green light ’watch me vanish’ and circles the dark voices, as they had circled her. When the green light goes to white, we see she is covered in red blood. Each night, people would embrace Marissa Robello (the actor playing the lead) even though she was covered in red paint--many people were so thankful to see depression truthfully albeit expressionistically, depicted onstage. The cast was: Marissa Robello, Reb Beau Allen, Ryan Sueoka, Kathy Hunter, Derrick Brown, Frank Katasse and Nicolas Logue.

Haditha Walmartt Killing Machine

Haditha Walmartt Killing Machine (with Kumu Kahua Dark Night) - Two different story lines with intersecting themes, dialogue and action; finally both stories begin to overlap not just in time but in space. One story followed two American soldiers who kill an innocent man in his home (very loosely inspired by the massacre at Haditha). They are about to murder his wife as well when they discover she is actually an American woman who fell in love with a man and converted to Islam (loving not only the man, but his beliefs as well.) The other story follows two protestors taking terrorist-action against a store called Walmartt. Socratic and Confucian notions of courage were the thematic basis of Haditha Walmartt Killing Machine.

Haditha Walmartt Killing Machine was, in part, an ode to the beauty of Islam. This play could not have been staged without the considerate help of our dear friend Farrad Kahn. One of the characters was named after him. The cast included: Marissa Robello, Ryan Sueoka, Nicolas Logue, Will Murray, Frank Katasse, Hester Kamin and Reb Beau Allen. Kathy Hunter and Gilbert Molina ran lights and sound.

Andrea/Agave (with the New York International Fringe Festival)

Andrea/Agave (with the New York International Fringe Festival) - Remounting of Andrea/Agave at the Lafayette Theatre in Noho, Manhattan. The cast included Cruel Theatre actors: Marissa Robello, Reb Beau Allen, Nicolas Logue and Jason Natale.

Backstage (more respected site) review

Andrea/Agave
by David A. Rosenberg
Aug 14, 2007

Conflating the story of Andrea Yates, the depressed Texas mother who drowned her five children, with that of Agave, who tore her son Dionysus to pieces in Euripides' The Bacchae, writer-director Taurie Kinoshita creates a thrilling, moving piece of theatre. Juxtaposing scenes of Yates at home and in an asylum with excerpts from the Greek tragedy, Andrea/Agave eviscerates the kind of evangelism that made Yates believe she was possessed by Satan. Well-meaning doctors, social workers, lawyers, and Yates' husband, Russell, are helpless to prevent the horror. Julie Ann McMillan (Andrea), Jason Natale (Russell), Reb Beau Allen (Kadmos, the narrator), and Marissa Robello and Nicolas Logue (both playing multiple roles) dig into their characters' physical and emotional rhythms. Using public records and with the help of lurid lighting by Tamara Green, Kinoshita presents a nightmare world. Whatever the future of this one-hour piece, it's a powerful reminder of humanity's inescapable continuum.

http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/nyc/review_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003625614

Street Limbo Blues (New York City)

Cruel Theatre staged this interactive environmental theatre production in the renowned Tompkins Square Park in New York City's East Village. Performances began at the lovely and intimate Cafe Pick Me Up (far, far better coffee than Starbucks) and ended with a six person overdose scene in the park (often, unknown to the audience, real junkies joined in the scene. In other words, instead of a six person--three audience, three actor--scene, there were two or three additional people who happened to be in the park, joining in the action.) Street Limbo Blues (NYC) followed Derelict's structure, instead of the Honolulu version of Street Limbo Blues. The cast included: Nancy Randall, Jason Natale, Samuel Burr, Scott Troost, Anthony Marks, Chris Doi, Jeremy Pippin, Josh Hunt, Catherine Gasta, Ebru Yonak and Eric Daniels