Review: Mystery Play by Warren Omata, Deep Yellow, 1998

"Omata outlines a family filled with uncomfortable secrets...He asks if life mimics mystery stories. Is every tiny event a clue-an integral part of God's plan? Or do things sometimes just happen?

"As intriguing as this philosophical questioning may be, the play falls flat...Perhaps burdened by the March 1997 suicide of the young playwright, director Darrell Kunitomi gives a bleak, humorless rendering that is at odds with the light ironic ending.

"Unfortunately Omata did not live long enough to develop this glimmer of an interesting philosophical play."

Lana Monji, LA Times

"Alas, whatever writing talent Omata had exhibited in S.A.M I Am and a third, unproduced play is scarecely in evidence in Mystery Play, which concerns the coalescing of tensions in an Asian American family in San Francisco after the tragic accidental death of the family's patriarch, a Christian minister...

"The problems with Mystery Play...begin with Omata trying too hard to make everything add up and tie together, when life is rarely that neat or pat...

"At its core are many good, workable ideas that probably could have used Omata's hand in some judicious rewrites. Perhaps the biggest mystery is that we'll never know how much better Mystery Play could have been."

Eric Marchese, Orange County Register

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