Play blossoms with isle diversity

Lee Cataluna — reporter, columnist, novelist and playwright — has grown into one of Hawaii’s foremost, funniest and beloved social commentators, and she returns to the spotlight with her triumphant new play "Flowers of Hawaii." The misleading title makes the work sound like a lecture on indigenous plants, but thankfully what we are examining under the microscope are the dramas of one particularly raucous local family.

The title comes from a collection of nine sets of dishware Cataluna collected while in grad school in Southern California, and the production is consequently divided into nine segments named after each of the plates’ floral patterns. Each "chapter" concentrates on a few family members and a significant moment in their lives.

We see a grandmother’s and grandson’s last tragic meeting; an almost slapstick sequence when two teenagers discover they are related to one other; a scary moment between two neighbors, one of whom may be committing spousal abuse.

But each little tale comes with the Cataluna touch: The stories wrap up with surprising conclusions that feel true to the characters.

Director Harry Wong III seamlessly blends each of the vignettes on the stage sparsely decorated with the cabinet featuring the nine sets of flowered plates, family photos and black chairs and crates that are moved as the setting of the scenes shifts.

The players in the family are varied — politicians, adulterers, goths, kupuna, drug addicts, a sex offender. The ensemble cast required to stage this play of blossoming diversity is excellent.

Dominating stage time is the family’s matriarch, Mary, played by Kati Kuroda with exasperation, weariness and a surprising amount of feistiness.

The two teenage goths played by Nick Nakama and Jaime Bradner run through their scene with perfect comic timing and tenderness. Reb Beau Allen portrays a firefighter carrying on with his co-worker’s wife, and his performance is tinged with humorous frustration.

Each vignette is roughly 10 minutes, and the two-hour play moves quickly.

Almost before you know it, "Flowers of Hawaii" reaches its poignant conclusion, and at that moment you realize Cataluna has mastered the subject of relationships and taken her place as our local Nora Ephron.