Tony Pisculli shares behind-the-scenes moments from his play, “The Magic of Polly Amnesia”

It is not every day that Kumu Kahua Theatre hosts a production where the lead actresses take nearly a year to learn not just their lines but how to be magicians. But, that is the case for playwright Tony Pisculli’s newest show, “The Magic of Polly Amnesia,” which took the stage at Kumu Kahua Theatre on March 27 and runs through April 27.

“If no one told you in advance that you were going to see a play and they just said, ʻHey, come and see this magic show,’  You’d be like: ʻOh, cool! Magic. I like magic,’” he said. “It would start off as a magic show — an unusual magic show — but a magic show, and then slowly, I think it would start to dawn on you.”

The show tells the story of Polly Amnesia, a magician who is also an orphan and takes the stage for a one-woman magic show while recounting her quest to find the family who abandoned her. She goes off script and messes up tricks, he said.

“And then it does become a play, but it starts off as a magic show,” he said. 

The approximately 80-minute show happens in real time, with no intermission. 

Typically, theaters cast an understudy for a main role, who might step into that part in an emergency situation.  But in this case, the lead character is double cast. She is played by Kathryn Lee and Shane Chung. 

“There's three other characters in it who have significant roles, but much fewer lines,” Pisculli said. “But ultimately, the play really hangs on the actor playing Polly, who has to have spent a year learning magic. The role is the equivalent of Romeo in ʻRomeo and Juliet’ in terms of size.  It's a massive part. And they're alone on stage for most of it. So, if we had lost an actor, that would be the end of the show.”

While the text of the play remains the same in both shows, the actresses interpret the words in slightly different ways. In fact, one of the shows runs about 10 minutes longer, he said. 

Pisculli worked as a software developer at Microsoft in the ʻ80s. But, he hated living in the Pacific Northwest because of the weather. He moved to Hawaiʻi and “then fumbled my way into theater,” he said. 

When he isn’t writing plays, Pisculli is a master instructor with Dueling Arts International, which means he can teach actors how to perform combat on stage. He also is a founder of the Hawaiʻi Shakespeare Festival. 

Pisculli wrote this play in about four weeks. 

“It is a drama, but it's a very funny play ...  up to the point where it's not,” he said with a laugh. 

The show is full of reveals and not just magical ones. 

“One of the tricks gets people to actually gasp in the audience,” Pisculli added. “They just go: ʻOh, wow,’ but the biggest gasp in the show is not from a magic trick. It's from a small reveal. It's in fact, completely silent. And it just gets me every time.”

Get tickets.

Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.