For Playwright Sean T.C. O’Malley, the inspiration for the play “The Queen’s Will” came out of a meeting with Prince Philip, the great-grandson of Robert Wilcox and Princess Theresa. O’Malley had written a triology of plays about Wilcox, which led Prince Philip — who had been in the audience for “Wilcox’s Shot” — to suggest one focused on the 1918 trial in which Princess Theresa was accused of conspiracy to commit forgery of the will of Queen Lili‘uokalani.
When they met for lunch, Prince Philip brought a thumbdrive of articles about Princess Theresa and the “trial of the century in 1918,” O’Malley said. When the playwright got home, he opened the thumbdrive and discovered more than 500 articles.
Now, “The Queen’s Will,” a play inspired by that research, will have its world premiere at Kumu Kahua Theatre on Thursday, Aug. 20. It runs through Sunday, Sept. 20.
Tickets are $28 for general admission, with discounts for students, seniors, and Thursday shows.
“Everybody was holding their breath about what was going to happen — and I shouldn't reveal what happened — but the aftermath is pretty dramatic,” O’Malley said.
The play is led by Director Reyn Afaga and Assistant Director Darryl Soriano.
The story will come to life with just three actors: Hoku Gilbert as Princess Theresa, Reb Beau Allen as lawyer Lorrin Andrews — not to be confused with Lorrin Andrews Thurston, who was his cousin — and Maile Kapuaʻala as legal assistant Mary K. Jarrett, who pretends to be various witnesses, who are “quite extraordinary in some cases,” O’Malley added.
O’Malley has written several historical plays, and this is his fourth to premiere at Kumu Kahua Theatre, a 100-seat playhouse in the heart of Honolulu.
“I love this little theater,” O’Malley said. “It’s heart is in the right place. The people that work there are wonderful, and it's committed to Hawaiʻi's stories by Hawaiʻi's people.”
In addition to reviewing files on the thumbdrive, O’Malley did his own research, pulling hundreds more articles, including some from newspapers in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, as well as documents from state and law library archives, and the First Circuit Court records room, he said.
“The first half of the play is just about the princess and her lawyer and the legal assistant meeting the night before the closing arguments in the court case and reviewing what's going on,” he said. “It's not a courtroom drama. You're not in court yourself, but it's their interactions. They're talking about how they got here, what happened in court, who was cheating, who was bribed — all the good meaty stuff.”
Writing the play went faster than the research. O’Malley had traveled to be with one of his parents who was having a medical procedure and was in the hospital waiting room for a day when he decided to start writing. He wrote the first draft of act one in the span of about 10 hours, he said.
“It came together within about a couple of months, and then Kumu Kahua talked to me about this early draft and commissioned me to finish it,” O’Malley said. “And so, from me deciding to write to this production has only been less than a year — which is extraordinary for a playwriting process.”
On Friday, Sept. 4, there will be a talk story session after the show, where the cast, director and playwright will chat about the production with the community.
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Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
