Theater Reviews: En Un Sol Amarillo, The Glory of Living, Loyal Women

Theater Pick: EN UN SOL AMARILLO (MEMORIAS DE UN TEMBLOR) or IN A YELLOW SUN (MEMORIES OF AN EARTHQUAKE) Playwright-director César Brie and the Teatro de los Andes theater company from Bolivia have based their performance piece on a series of interviews they conducted with survivors of the devastating 1998 earthquake that struck the cities of Aiquile, Totora and Mizque and surrounding agrarian communities. I don’t mean to sound stone hearted in saying that episodes of shock and grief, as children are buried in sand and rubble, sound like commonplace sagas of woe — as does the indignation at how relief supplies and international funds got siphoned away by local distribution agencies. (Portrayals of local government officials are like commedia villains.) Even we insulated and self-absorbed Americans recognize how much can go wrong when fire and flood strike us, and what that says about human nobility and corruption, working side by side. The collage of testimonies (performed in Spanish by Luca Achirico, Daniel Aguirre, Gonzalo Callejas and Alice Guimaraes with projected English translations) hangs on the spine of the quake, the departure of refugees from Aquile, and their eventual return to a city that’s a shadow of its past. The beauty of this production lies in its skeletal theatricality, in the faces of the refugees upon their homecoming, staring into the audience. Without a word, we imagine what they see. Gonzalo Callejas’ set contains furniture pieces dangling on the ends of rope pulleys, door frames and tables and jingle and jangle as the rumble of the quake sounds from a sand-filled drum. An actor sprinkles sand into the figure of a child on a tabletop — the table gets turned on its side and the child dissolves onto the floor. This is the power of theater emanating from its most elemental source. The lament, the fury and their ensuing beauty are unimpeachable. Teatro de los Andes, Center Theatre Group and the International Latino Theatre Festival of Los Angeles at the KIRK DOUGLAS THEATRE, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m. (no perfs Nov. 13-16 & Nov. 22; added perf Nov. 19, 8 p.m.); thru Nov. 22. (213) 628-2772.

BETTY GARRETT, CLOSET SONGWRITER With a supporting ensemble of seven, the 88-year-old Betty Garrett sings — and dances — through a musical revue. Garrett, who’s been writing songs her entire life, penned all of the lyrics. (The 28 very short songs are credited to numerous composers.) She may not sing every song, but Garrett does introduce each song from a chair on the sidelines. Many of the introductions make passing reference to key events in Garrett’s life: her hardscrabble childhood during the Depression, her marriage to Larry Parks and Parks’ subsequent persecution by HUAC during the Red Scare. She’s led a fascinating life, and co-directors Garrett and John Carter might consider cutting some of the songs and including more real-life stories from Garrett. Substituting for Lee Meriwether, Bridget Hanley does a fine job with the melancholy love songs. But Garrett herself sings one of the most memorable songs in the show, “Remember Me,” with music by her son Garrett Parks. While choreographer Devra Korwin has tailored the dance numbers to Garrett’s age, Garrett is still able to pull off a mean soft-shoe number. THEATRE WEST, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Nov. 18. (323) 851-7977. (Sandra Ross)

 THE GLORY OF LIVING “White trash” is a status that the low-rent Southerners in Rebecca Gilman’s bleak yarn aspire to climb up to. Lisa (Rachel Style), the 15-year-old daughter of a prostitute (Saige Spinney), runs off with a smooth-talking drifter named Clint (Martin Papazian), who soon embroils her in a world of rape, murder and cheap motel rooms. The story material could have easily been thrown away into a dismissive or caricatured vision of America’s lower depths, but Gilman finds humanity and something like humor, if not hope, in her diorama of predatory living. Director Carri Sullens’ ear is finely tuned to this harrowing play’s more nuanced moments, and Style is luminous as the scarred innocent, Lisa. VICTORY THEATRE CENTER, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; thru Dec. 22. (818) 841-5421. (Steven Mikulan) See Stage feature next week.

LOYAL WOMEN Belfast playwright Gary Mitchell takes us on an unsentimental tour of the “other” Ireland seldom glimpsed in theater — one that is Protestant and deeply loyal to Queen and Country. His play is set in a working-class neighborhood during a Christmas season. It begins shortly after Terry (Dan Conroy), who has served 16 years in prison for a politically motivated murder, returns to his wife, Brenda (Rebecca Marcotte), and to a Northern Ireland that is tenuously embracing a new era of reconciliation. Brenda, however, will have nothing to do with this blustering, unfaithful layabout, whose arrival coincides with new demands being made upon her by her superiors in the Ulster Defense Association — the Protestant counterpart of the IRA. Brenda is further put upon by Terry’s nagging invalid mother (Rebecca Wackler); a shrilly combative, unwed mother of a daughter (Amanda Deibert); and an amorous handyman (Barry Lynch). While Act 1 keeps us riveted by its unforgiving milieu and by the ax swings of angry dialogue, Act 2 is the place where Mitchell suddenly feels he needs to cut the color and start throwing in plot devices and character motivations. This abrupt change in tack doesn’t ruin the story by any means, but the concentration of conflict and confrontations makes the second half seem a bit overheated. Director Sean Branney gets strong and convincing performances from his actors, all of whom flawlessly handle their accents. THE BANSHEE, 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Dec. 2. (818) 846-5323. (Steven Mikulan)