Media Release – October, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Late Night Theatre Company Presents 友達「Friends」by Abe Kōbō
November 15-22, 2025 – Earle Ernst Lab Theatre
The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Department of Theatre & Dance and Kennedy Theatre present Late Night Theatre Company’s production of 友達「Friends」by Abe Kōbō, directed by MFA candidate Robert Morris III. This production is a part of Kennedy Theatre’s 62nd season, celebrating the past, present, and future of Theatre and Dance at UHM. 友達「Friends」is a dark comedy about a group of strangers invading a salaryman’s home and forcibly establishing themselves as his new family, staunchly guided by a founding principle of neighborly love. The play, against a backdrop of slapstick comedy and increasingly absurd shenanigans, explores the paradoxically isolating nature of conformity and the often- ignored cruelty inherent to humor. 友達「Friends」runs November 15-16 and 21-22, Friday and Saturday at 11:00 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. in the Earle Ernst Lab Theatre. Tickets range from $6-$11 and will only be sold in-person at the Kennedy Theatre Box Office starting one hour before each show.
When reimagining the play for Kennedy Theatre, Morris’ primary sources of inspiration were the American sitcom tradition and Brechtian staging conventions; two very different genres with respective forms of nonrealistic/heightened performance styles and a situational awareness of the audience’s role in storytelling. The set-within-a-set premise of this staging encourages audiences to examine both the function of performance itself in contemporary society and the positionality of those exploited for entertainment value. As the play progresses, certain questions inevitably arise: How much of this action is staged? For whose benefit? At what cost?
Theatre has and always will be a necessarily collaborative artform, and this show would not be possible without an incredible team of hard-working artists. Local musician Marcus Moore, in addition to playing flute and conducting the play’s live band each night, also composed the Jazz-Gagaku fusion score heard throughout the show. Jack Romans, Theatre for Young Audiences Directing MFA candidate, designed the play’s meta, sitcom-style set (and props), creating a world which harkens back to American television classics while maintaining a self-aware, Brechtian sensibility that understands design is not a passive backdrop to plot but instead holds the power to comment on the unfolding action. Lighting designer Kelli Finnegan has designed a lighting concept that simultaneously captures the bright (almost oppressive) power of television comedy lighting, while also maintaining a sensitivity to the underlying pathos of the play. Just as with the set, the lights are very much a character in the play.
The future of theatre relies on spaces that provide emerging voices a platform to share work with complete freedom of creative vision and without concern for mainstream appeal or profitability. This production exists only because the Department of Theatre & Dance, Kennedy Theatre, and the student-run Late Night Theatre Company gave it that necessary space to develop and present itself freely. Whether art is capable of enacting change, whether theatre can impact audiences in any materially significant way, whether any of this has a point or purpose beyond an evening’s entertainment—these are questions unable to be answered by 友達「Friends」(or, perhaps, anyone), but this production nevertheless believes it is vital to begin by asking them. For more information please visit https://manoa.hawaii.edu/liveonstage/ln1/.
This performance contains mature themes and language.
About Late Night Theatre Company
Late Night Theatre Company strives to create relevant and innovative performance artmaking by, for, and about UHM students that dismantles oppression, fosters skills in a pre-professional environment, and empowers our local, national, and global communities.
EVENT:
友達「Friends」by Abe Kōbō
PRESENTED BY:
UHM’s Late Night Theatre Company
and Kennedy Theatre
WHEN:
November 15-16 & 21-22, 2025
FRI/SAT at 11:00 p.m.
SUN at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE:
Earle Ernst Lab Theatre at Kennedy Theatre
1770 East-West Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
TICKET PRICES:
$11 Regular (Adult)
$9 Discount Groups (Military, Senior, UH Faculty/Staff, Non-UHM Students with Valid ID)
$6 UH Manoa Students (with Valid UHM ID)
Ticket prices include all service fees.
PURCHASE INFO:
Tickets go on sale at the Kennedy Theatre box office one hour prior to the performance.
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