Neediness and struggle mark powerful 2-in-1 work

It’s rare for Kumu Kahua Theatre to pre­­sent a play not written locally or not about Hawaii, but Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang’s "Sound & Beauty" — two one-act plays set in Japan — provides a haunting and pensive finish to the theater’s season.

Taurie Kinoshita directs both sections that comprise the work — "The Sound of a Voice" and "The House of Sleeping Beauties" — originally staged in 1983 off-Broadway.

The first is the tale of a samurai traveler (Andrew Lum) in feudal Japan who stops by the house of the mysterious Hanako (Jennifer Clayton) to rest for the night — or so it seems. The sensual, noh theater-like mood gives the proceedings the atmosphere of a ghost story.

Lum growls and agonizes as the wandering guest who is tormented by voices that may be coming from … a vase of flowers. But Clayton dominates as the alternately slinky and servile femme fatale. Is she just a lonely woman who desperately longs to hear another voice in her empty house? Or is she actually a witch, casting a spell on the hapless man to keep him forever in her clutches?

"The House of Sleeping Beauties" is a more straightforward narrative that imagines how real-life author Yasu­­nari Kawa­­bata might have written his novella "House of the Sleeping Beauties" while providing a fictional scenario for his unexplained suicide in 1972.

Kawabata (Dann Seki) visits a brothel, doing research for a story. Once there the writer strikes up a friendship of sorts with the madam of the house, played by Denise Aiko Chinen. Soon he is a nightly client, taking a "medicine" and literally sleeping with a beautiful young girl — just sleeping. But Kawa­­bata may not be there for purely literary intentions; he has some serious issues to work out regarding the suicide of his friend and fellow writer Yukio Mishima that require more than just a night’s rest with a tender beauty.

Seki makes a proud, blustery and eventually vulnerable Kawa­­bata, but Hwang again wrote the meatier role for the female lead. Chinen is a commanding madam of the comfort home — wise, witty, girlish (for a character in her middle age) and ultimately tragic in her need to connect with her guest.

The production is almost Zen-like in its minimalism — just a stage with tatami mat flooring and sliding rice-paper screen doors. A large panel on the center of the wall comes to life when lit from behind. During "The Sound of a Voice," we see a strange wailing, writhing apparition (Tyler Tanabe) that haunts Hanako’s visitor. And in "The House of Sleeping Beauties," the panel is used for shadow play — again featuring Tanabe, now joined by Clayton, silently acting out poignant themes of Kawa­­bata’s life.

How are these two stories connected? What themes do they share to make up "Sound & Beauty"?

Japan. Suicide. Sleep. Loneliness. How men and women relate, and, of course, the need for intimacy and love.

Beyond that, this is a unique opportunity to see two short, modern classics from a master Asian-American playwright.