Ka Makani Players present ‘Flowers for Algernon’

Hawaii Preparatory Academy’s Ka Makani Players will present David Rogers’ “Flowers for Algernon” at 7 p.m. Feb. 27-28 and March 1 at the school’s Gates Performing Arts Center. Tickets, which are only available at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for students.

“Flowers for Algernon” is based on the novel by Daniel Keyes. HPA theater instructor Marina Tichotsky is the director, with set and lighting design by Jared Terpak.

“Ingeniously touching and intensely real,” wrote the critic of The Baltimore Sun about this production. “Convincing, suspenseful, touching,” was the comment of the New York Times critic who concluded his review with the observation this was “affecting, too. How otherwise explain the tears that come to one’s eyes at the end.”

The production tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a man with a learning disability, and the strange interweaving of his life with that of Algernon, a mouse. Experimental surgery was performed on Algernon, increasing his intelligence fourfold.

The operation is attempted on Charlie, who rapidly changes to a genius, far more intelligent than his teacher, Alice Kinnian, or the doctors who created the operating technique.

As Charlie approaches the peak of his brilliance, Algernon shows frightening symptoms of regression. The play becomes a race against time in which Charlie tries to keep his new intelligence long enough to save himself and thus continue what he and Alice found.

This is a different kind of play: poignant, romantic, funny and tragic, but with hope of man’s indomitable spirit.

The cast features Julian Sandulli as Charlie, Kimi Cantyne as Alice, Churchill Crean as Professor Nemur, Curtis McMackin as Dr. Strauss, Colby Camero as Burt Sheldon, Wolfgang Brennan as Teenage Charlie, and 16 other supporting players.

For more information, call 881-4002.