Kumu Kahua Theatre Reveals Lineup For 56th Season
Artistic director Harry Wong III curates five world premieres, including works by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl and Hailiʻōpua Baker.
History, mystery, and humor will all play a part in Kumu Kahua Theatre's 56th Season, as the downtown Honolulu theatre has announced its 2026-2027 lineup set to span genres and centuries of local life.
Curated by Artistic Director Harry Wong III, the season opens with The Queen's Will, based on historical events and powerfully written by Sean T.C. O'Malley. Hailiʻōpua Baker's Kupua follows—presenting two traditional Hawaiian mo‘olelo (stories) in one profound play experience. Next, Hannah Ii-Epstein's All Buss Up in a HI State: A Trilogy of Hawai‘i Plays will take the stage, centering around family and historical forces—followed by the 1930s-set Murder Finds a Medium from celebrated playwright Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl. The season concludes with Marion Lyman-Mersereau and Sara Ward's Grumpy Old Futz, a current comedy about widowers and their adventures in retirement.
"Through the support of our community, we are able to take risks and have artistic playfulness within the process of picking shows for our seasons, whether it is taking a chance on exciting new writers emerging from our workshops and contests, or celebrating venerated voices," said Kumu Kahua Theatre Artistic Director, Harry Wong III. "One of Dennis Carroll's dreams was for the theatre he helped found to cultivate a repertoire of plays that we could bring back for generations of audiences, and Kumu Kahua's 56th Season reflects that timeless quality, with local stories that need to be told about who we are and how we live."
The Queen's Will
by Sean T.C. O'Malley
August 20 - September 20, 2026
In the tumultuous early days of the Territory of Hawai‘i, Princess Theresa Owana Ka‘ōhelelani La‘anui Wilcox Belliveau fights for her freedom and her identity as she is accused of conspiracy to commit forgery of the last will and testament of Queen Lili‘uokalani. The Princess and her legal team struggle to expose the lies, contradictions, secrets, and bribes in the testimony of increasingly eccentric witnesses. Finally she must decide who she is and what she must do in the aftermath of this highly sensational 1918 trial. The Queen's Will is based on historical events which are little-known in the present day.
Kupua
by Hailiʻōpua Baker
October 29 - November 29, 2026
Kupua presents two traditional stories: “Ka ʻEnuhe” and “Ka Puhi a me Ka Loli,” that explore the perilous allure of hidden appetites that masquerade as love or comfort while quietly consuming the life of the ʻohana. In each story, kupua embody forces that drain sustenance and vitality under cover of night, and it is only through vigilance and decisive action that balance is restored. Together, the plays suggest that survival depends on seeing clearly, confronting deception, and protecting the bonds of family and community from what would quietly devour them.
All Buss Up in a HI State: A Trilogy of Hawai‘i Plays
by Hannah Ii-Epstein
January 21 - February 21, 2027
This trilogy reveals how personal choices are shaped by historical forces, and how cycles of loss can echo through families as powerfully as love. Yet even in their darkest moments, these stories insist on the resilience of ʻohana and the enduring connection to the ʻāina. Spanning generations, the three plays offer a lyrical and unflinching portrait of a community confronting colonization, commodification, and addiction—while searching for healing in the land, in memory, and in each other.
Not One Batu
Meet Honey Girl: a former meth user, now an expert drug dealer. At a Hale‘iwa park bench one morning, Honey Girl meets up with customers and friends, rival dealers and her addict mother, all linked together by the meth they buy or sell, use or reject. Sometimes humorous but ultimately harrowing, Chicago-based playwright Hannah Ii-Epstein witnesses 60 minutes in one woman's struggle to stay clean in a world turned upside-down by meth.
Pakalōlō Sweet
Junior Boy is a young Hawaiian man who comes from a lineage of marijuana growers on the North Shore of Oʻahu and is now proudly expecting a baby with his girlfriend, Nani. During a night of karaoke, beer, and weed, the medical uses, benefits, and cultural aspects of marijuana in pre-contact Hawai‘i are explored. What follows is unexpected and heartbreaking as we witness Junior Boy's struggle to do what he believes is best for his ‘ohana. This prequel to Not One Batu follows Papa's family—and the inevitable hardships arising when indigenous values are systematically marginalized.
Aloha Fry-Day
In many indigenous cultures, hallucinogens are inextricably linked to rituals celebrating liminality; their consciousness-expanding qualities can also induce therapeutic emotional release from trauma. But during a night of jubilant euphoria in the 1990s, Sherrie's unresolved memories erupt into tragedy. The final act in Ii-Epstein's North Shore Oʻahu drug trilogy, Aloha Fry-Day follows four friends: Sherrie, Sistah, Lei, and Jason, as they meet in the forest to mourn a friend's death by spreading his ashes and taking hallucinogens. What they find on their mission is unexpected as they share stories which are haunted by the ghosts of the ʻāina.
Murder Finds a Medium
by Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl
March 25 - April 25, 2027
It is 1936, and Katya Denikin is a spiritual medium who has become entangled in the suspicious death of foreman Richard Morgan at an isolated South Kohala ranch station. As the investigation proceeds, secrets of cruelty, blackmail, and revenge ripple through the ranch community. The subsequent death of Mrs. Morgan deepens the mystery, and in a climactic séance, the truth emerges. Blending mystery, humor and the supernatural, this play probes justice, spectacle, and the cost of buried truths.
Grumpy Old Futz
by Marion Lyman-Mersereau and Sara Ward
May 27 - June 27, 2027
This buoyant yet tender comedy follows Masa and Yosh--played by Kumu Kahua legends DannSeki and Allan Okubo--widowers enjoying the retired life of hanging out at the veterans hall, hitting on the wait staff, and talking story. That is until Masa persuades his son, Johnny, and Yosh to join him on an Alaskan canoe trip complete with mishaps, campfire laughter, and mosquitoes.
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