The play is set in a haberdashery shop run by Akira, who has come from a plantation on Maui with wife Mieko. They want to run a legitimate business, but are using the proceeds from prostitution to get there. Their interactions with employees, clients, and public officials make up the bulk of the play.

COURTESY KAVEH KARDAN
Tyler Tanabe and Tracy Okubo.
The Chinatown fire of Jan. 20, 1900, dislocated 4,000 people, destroyed 38 blocks of downtown Honolulu, and left nothing standing but Kaumakapili Church, the structure that fused the conflagration, and the building that housed the firefighters who lost control of the blaze. Yet it killed no one.
That doesn’t mean the fire did not leave a lot of ghosts behind. A new play, “Ghosts in the Plague Year,” by UH drama professor Dennis Carroll and presented by the Kumu Kahua Theatre, breathes new life into these characters.
“Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolul …

See the full article from “Honolulu Star-Advertiser”

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