June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month, and a new original play offers a local take on themes of memory loss and identity.
“Memory Beads” is showing now at Kumu Kahua Theatre.
The play strings together scenes, or beads, from five generations of a family's history. Joni collects 'memory beads' to counteract her fears that a family history of Alzheimer's Disease will strike her mother or herself.
Each scene is a bead sharing a story of immigration, unearthed genealogy and self-acceptance. The cord that pulls the play together is the enduring relationships of mothers and daughters.
Local playwright Diane Aoki is behind the original production. She spoke with The Conversation about turning her own experience as a caregiver into a reflection on the fragility of memory and the importance of family.
“I kept working on it, adding another scene, adding another scene around this basic theme of losing your memory as you age,” Aoki explained. “So I'd have different experiences with myself and with my mom that expressed that fear, you know, if you lose your memory, then what happens? Who are you? So the idea of the play came to be about reclaiming the memories or saving the memories, so that you can pass it on to the next generation.”
The play moves back and forth in time and follows two storylines: one about the main character and her family, and another based on an Okinawan folktale.
“It was about just capturing those memories, capturing those thoughts, and stringing them together and trying to make sense of it,” Aoki shared. “So it was a really big risk or departure from the way I usually write.”
Aoki recommends that audiences take the play one scene at a time, hoping that by the end, the story will be woven together to reveal how all the memory beads connect.
She encourages others to keep making connections with their elders.
“The importance of making connections to your elders and getting their stories is the importance of knowing who you are in terms of your identity. … I'm hoping that thinking about the next generation, the generation beyond that, that they will still feel ties or feel connection, feel some kind of resonance with their ancestral line. So just be thankful that you have them still in your lives and try to get their stories,” Aoki said.
“Memory Beads” will be playing onstage at Kumu Kahua Theatre through June 28.
Hawaiʻi-based band Maajiru will play in the theatre during pre-show on Friday, June 5. There will be a talk story with Aoki, directors Liza Sanchez and Jules Gilman, the cast and crew following the performance.
Ladies Night is June 12. Buy one, get one free tickets are available by calling the box office 808-536-4441. Attendees who mention "Memory Beads" can receive a $7 drink special at Black Shamrock Tavern before the show.
This story aired on The Conversation on June 2, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
