FRIDAY-APRIL 14
>> Memory, tech world collide in sci-fi play ‘Marjorie Prime’
“Marjorie Prime,” a play that blends science-fiction with issues of existentialism, debuts this week as the fourth production for the new Kailua Onstage Arts company.
The play “explores issues of memory, as well as technology,” said director Kevin Keaveney. “It brings up ideas of how memory is formed, and what constitutes an actual memory.”
The play is set approximately 50 years in the future, when technology can distill the essense of a human being into a kind of “holographic” figure to provide companionship for Alzheimer’s patients. “They’ll fill it with the memories that people tell it about that person’s life, and then that person will talk with the Alzheimer’s patient in an effort to keep their memories strong,” Keaveney said.
The problem comes when the “memories” that the holographic entity contains aren’t exactly true, said Keaveney, drawing parallels to the famous film “Rashomon,” where four characters recount the same incident in drastically different ways. “People have different memories of the same people, the same events, so then what constitutes reality? Also, these companions, they have the memories of being alive and having been a person. They are able to learn and respond. … So how different is that from actually being a person?”
The play, by Jordan Harrison, received rave reviews when it was staged in Los Angeles and New York, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2014. Kailua Onstage’s production stars Marshall Camden and Jim Aina, pictured, and Jo Pruden and Hoku Gilbert.
“MARJORIE PRIME”
>> Where: 171-A Hamakua Drive, Kailua
>> When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday, April 12-13; and 4 p.m. April 7 and 14
>> Cost: $20-$30
>> Info: kailuaonstagearts.com
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
>> Influential rap duo Atmosphere hits Hawaii
Minnesota-based rap duo Atmosphere comes to The Republik for two performances this week.
Sean Daley and Anthony Davis first met in high school and started making music together in 1996, with Dale, under the name Slug, performing and composing and Davis taking on producing chores and taking the name Ant. With songs that touch on the political as well as the personal, they’ve had enduring success, with seven of their nine albums reaching top spots on Billboard’s Independent Album charts, including “You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having” in 2005 and “Fishing Blues” in 2016. The two have been influential as movers and shakers in the industry, too, as cofounders of the hip-hop label Rhymesayers.
They’re touring a new album “Mi Vida Local” (“My Local Life”), released last fall, which the duo’s website called an expression of “anxiety over keeping loved ones safe during turbulent times.”
The album, which reached No. 7 on the Independent Albums Chart, shows the broad range of their talent. The main single “Virgo,” expresses the angst of a generation with lines like “Y’all got me feeling hesitation, embarrassment/ I might be the last generation of grandparents,” but over an acoustic guitar accompaniment.
ATMOSPHERE
The Mi Vida Local Tour
>> Where: The Republik, 1349 Kapiolani Blvd 3rd Floor, Honolulu, HI 96814
>> When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday
>> Cost: $29.50-$34.50
>> Info: 941-7469, jointherepublik.com
FRIDAY
>> Big Island B&B inspires feature film
“August at Akiko’s,” a film inspired by a filmmaker’s experience on Hawaii island, opens Friday at the Kahala 8 Theatre.
Filmmaker Christopher Makoto Yogi discovered Akiko’s Buddhist Bed & Breakfast in Wailea and was reminded of his own family, later discovering that both sides of his family had roots in the area.
His film touches on hidden stories from the past, and on reconnecting with a history that may be unknown. The film screened at the Hawaii International Film Festival, garnering nominations for the Made in Hawaii Feature Film Award and its Kau Ka Hoku Filmmaker Award for emerging directors.
The film is a kind of a visual postcard of the island, and stars musician Alex Zhang Hungtai as a Hawaii-born musician named Alex who has been living on the mainland, but then arrives in Wailea in search of information about his ancestors. He meets Akiko ( played by Akiki Masuda, the actual owner of the bed and breakfast), who helps him reconnect with Hawaii.
In a November interview, Yogi said the film was improvisatory in nature: “We left ourselves open to the experience and then all these ideas just starting flowing.”
Yogi will be at Friday’s 7:20 p.m. screening for a Q&A session.
TUESDAY
>> Beach Boys to do it again
In the 55 years since the Beach Boys’ first concert in Hawaii they’ve played just about every venue appropriate for one of the biggest American bands of the Rock Era, from a purpose-built stage on the beach in front of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel to Aloha Stadium. On Tuesday they’ll be at the Hawaii Theatre for a one-nighter that promises to be a bit more intimate than seeing them in Aloha Stadium or Blaisdell Arena.
Leading the group is Mike Love, the founding member of the group who is keeping the sound and the legacy of the group alive. Working with him is Bruce Johnston, who met them here in 1963 while touring with the duo Bruce & Terry (Melcher) and has been part of the performing line-up since 1965.
Hearing Love sing all the Beach Boys hits he sang lead on in the 1960s — will full Beach Boys legacy harmonies behind him — will never gets old.
“Little Deuce Coupe, you don’t know what I got…”
— John Berger, Star-Advertiser
THE BEACH BOYS
>> Where: Hawaii Theatre
>> When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
>> Cost: $100-$500
>> Info: 528-0506, hawaiitheatre.com
>> Note: A digital copy of Mike Love’s double album “Unleash the Love,” which he recorded and released in 2017, will be made available to online ticketbuyers one week after the concert
For additional events, visit staradvertiser.com/calendar/.
