Q & A: Theater / Taurie Kinoshita whips through Volcano Joe’s clutching a script, a clipboard and a cup of coffee in one hand, a bag of lifestyle in the other: cell phone, keys, school books, cigarettes. She’s more than punctual for the interview but with Kinoshita, everything happens on a metaphysical level, as if space-time were sliding off a cliff into oblivion.

Kinoshita is one of the rising young theater artists now in Honolulu and if you haven’t seen one of her productions, you’ve missed a chance at confronting the demons within yourself and society. As a director, she is drawn to works that explore the rougher, darker side of life. In the last few years she’s mounted productions of Anton Buchner’s Woyzeck, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Cenci, Frank McGuinness’s Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme and Dennis Carroll’s locally grown Age, Sex, Location. Almost 10 years ago, Kinoshita founded Honolulu’s most avant-garde theater company, The Cruel Theatre, named in homage to French playwright and poet Antonin Artaud. Artaud espoused a theater that confronted audiences, forced them to react–often through staged violence–and swept them away to realms of being that were new and disturbing. Kinoshita follows that tradition. This week, she debuts her thesis production, 4.48 Psychosis, by British playwright Sarah Kane. After that and the endless paperwork of an MFA behind her, Kinoshita is contemplating a move to the Big Apple, therefore it seemed timely to record a few thoughts from one of the most creative directors Honolulu has seen in recent years– before she slides over the cliff into SoHo.

One night I was in a club, and I turned to a guy and said, ‘How many existentialists does it take to change a light bulb?’ and this guy didn’t know what an existentialist was and I thought, ‘I’m in the wrong place.’

How many existentialistsdoes it take?

It doesn’t really matter, does it?

Is it theater’s job, then, to teach people existentialism?

Is theater education or entertainment? I’ve gone back and forth on this. I think theater must arise to meet the needs of a society at the time. A theater should educate–educate by entertaining–not be just entertainmentÖMy work is often political. Because theater, when it’s done well, and it’s entertaining, has the potential to educate, to inspire, to move you to action. It’s what makes us human. No one left Age, Sex, Location thinking that raping a 13-year-old girl was a good idea.

But why are your shows political? Why the nudity and violence?

I’ve only done two shows with nudity out of 33! This one [4.48 Psychosis] will be my third. But violence–it’s a running joke that somebody always gets killed or raped in my shows. Oh, my gosh, that’s horrible! Anyway, I’ve been naked in more shows than I’ve had naked people in my shows.

4.48 Psychosis is your second Sarah Kane script. Like Artaud, she suffered mental illness, and eventually killed herself. Why Kane? Why this play?

She’s a master of combining structure and content. The content of the play–it’s more like a poem–is madness, and the structure of the play matches that. It’s non-linear and non-narrative. It’s great material, but it’s a challenge also, especially for the actors. It’s very difficult. There are no characters written in, the actors have to be able to adapt, take it all in–normally you’d have a script and know who your character was. My actors do it by sheer commitment and will and dedication. And lots of talent.

So you like the dark side? You explore dark themes for a purpose?

It’s what Artaud said, ‘Like victims at a stake, singing through the flames.’ He wanted to drain the collective abscesses of society. It depends how you do it. When the performance is powerful enough–and this is Aristotelian–there’s this catharsis, and they [the audience] walk out inspired or moved in some way from what they’ve seen. The means are debatable. Theater should always be captivating; it shouldn’t be dogmatic. How else are you going to move people?’

But most of the theater in this town consists of happy comedies and jolly musicals. Plus, more people go to films than plays. How do you compete with that?

Audiences just have to open themselves up to it–we have to draw on the strengths that theater has over film: split focus, direct connection with the audienceÖIt’s quality over quantity. There’s this misconception that film is visual, and theater is not, but if you don’t make theater visually appealing, you might as well be reciting the words in darkness.

Yes, but a number of recent shows in town come from film: Aladdin, Footloose, The Full Monty, Enchanted April, The GraduateÖ

I mean, why? Why? You can do anything you want to do, and you do The Graduate? There are people dying out there in Somalia, and you do The Graduate?

Well, there goes your relationship with Manoa Valley Theatre. By the way, I reviewed The Graduate for The Weekly.

Oh, I’m sorry.

What if someone offered you the chance to direct Grease for a high school, would you take the job?

[Laughs] Oh, of course. A student’s experience in theater is very valuable. I think back to my experiences in high school theater before I became homeless, how it influenced me, and then I returned to theater. There’s something to be said for a director who could have some fun with Grease.

Would you include sex and violence?

[Laughs again] You know, I don’t know! Maybe, if they’d let me. Maybe Frenchie and Sandy could get it on at some pointÖbut tastefully, tastefully.

4.48 Psychosis, The ARTS at Mark’s Garage, 1159 Nu’uanu,Friday through Sunday shows, Fri 4/21-Sun 4/30, first Fri at 9pm, all other shows 8pm, $15 general, $10, 550-8457, [www.honoluluboxoffice.com]