Theater Reviews: Regretrosexual, 1776

Also, The Boychick Affair, Othello

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Monday, Feb 25 2008

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I'M YOUR GIRL Depressive Catherine (Lori Allen Thomas) drives off a bridge. Her boyfriend, Mantello (Jeffrey Wylie, with a scuzzy mustache), knew Catherine was suicidal. But her bitter husband, Jensen (Elliott Williams), is stuck on the two bullet holes in Catherine's passenger window and her last-minute will that left everything to the caddish Mantello, who claims he never even knew her last name. As Catherine's ghost opens the play in a monologue referring to the night she died as a "miracle," we're a step ahead of these two men's realization that they never understood the fragile, unhinged dreamer. But sometimes it feels like Amy Tofte's play doesn't get her either, as Catherine veers from admitting her death wish was a mistake to blissful Zen talk about the peace she found in renouncing hope. In flashbacks, several moments capture the pain and desperation of failing relationships, though the truth of these scenes is diluted by other moments of extreme symbolism: When Jensen confronts Mantello after dredging the lake for the gun, he pulls a leech off his neck and glowers, "I knew I felt something sucking out my life." David Watkins Jr. directs the temporal, spectral and emotional shifts with care, but can't resist encouraging Wylie and Williams to stutter and to stumble into furniture when confronted by their ghost lover. Studio/Stage, 520 N. Western Ave., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru March 9. (310) 201-0064. (Amy Nicholson)

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OTHELLO Director Lisa Wolpe sets Shakespeare's passionate play in 1930s Fascist Italy, illuminating little of its complexity. From the outset, Fran Bennett's title character fails to radiate the wisdom, nobility or charisma that might attract his wife, Desdemona (Nell Geisslinger) — many decades his junior — or the soldiers under his command who profess to admire him. When events turn dark, this Othello responds querulously rather than with noble rage. Wolpe's Iago is a cerebral fellow whose hatred of the Moor — the play's driving force — shows up in his face but doesn't permeate his being. Kimberleigh Aarn's generic Cassio lacks the charm that might threaten other men, and so spur the gullible Othello to a jealous rage. And as Iago's wife and Desdemona's lady in waiting, Katrinka Wolfson despoils a juicy cameo by hyperbolizing her indignation at Desdemona's murder, rather than building a viable and moving relationship with her mistress (and with Iago) prior to the event. Only Geisslinger lands on target, as a gracious and ladylike Desdemona who later persuasively pleads for her life. Wolpe makes adept use of the production's technical elements, which include Susan Gratch's set, Jaymi Lee Smith's lighting and Kari Rae Seekins' sound. Together, they furnish an impressive framework for this less-than-compelling drama. Theater @ Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru March 23. (626) 683-6883. A Women's Shakespeare Company Production. (Deborah Klugman)

Tim Sullens

The World's Largest Rodent

Keith Ian Polakoff

The Saint Plays

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Keith Ian Polakoff

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The Saint Plays

RAVENSRIDGE Fremont Centre Theatre, South Pasadena; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru March 20. (866) 811-4111. See Stage feature.

THEATER PICK REGRETROSEXUAL: THE LOVE STORY In his desperate attempts to adapt to any situation, straight comedian Dan Rothenberg spent two years in San Francisco dating men so he wouldn't face rejection from his best friend, who was just coming out of the closet. This is only the most bizarre of Rothenberg's neuroses, all of which he let spill in his earlier, one-man show about this gay period ("not a phase"). Two years later his equally psychologically damaged wife, Colleen Crabtree, joins him to create this touching and hilarious two-hander that follows their courtship. Rothenberg swears to the audience that he is going to be up-front with Crabtree about his sexual experiment, until for a very specific reason she yells at him one day, "Just don't be gay!" While serious relationship issues develop between these two broken characters, the actors (playing themselves) are so likable, attractive and funny that the evening is a joy. Crabtree is especially amusing as she caricatures Rothenberg's family and friends — most painfully, his mother. Richard Kuhlman's light director's touch switches directions whenever the play begins to move toward either bathos or goofiness. A simple but flexible set of colorful wooden cutouts by Alex Hutton is quite effective — and gives Rothenberg a few good laughs as he winks at the audience about the cleverness of the set design. Hudson Guild Theater, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru March 15. (323) 960-7822 or www.plays411.com/regretrosexual.

GO THE SAINT PLAYS Here's a futile attempt to describe a kind of beauty that's really indescribable, because the evening described is the essence of the irrational, and a review is supposed to be a stab at reason. Playwright Eric Ehn is a wordsmith who employs language to shatter reason in search of more meaningful reflections in the shards. He has taken the legends of five saints — Joan of Arc (Rowena Johnson), Rose of Lima (Anna Steers), George (Arber R. Mehmeti), Barbara (Deborah Lazor), and the world premiere of a play about St. Dymphna (Rowena Johnson). Five playlets, each based on one of the saints — respectively, "Wholly Joan's," "Una Carrona," "The Freak," "Radio Elephant" and "Color Drums" — have been sculpted together by director Anne Justine D'Zmura onto a giant sand pit within this cavernous armory. Scaffolding abounds. The audience is seated on bleachers above three sides of the action. We could just as well be watching a boxing match. With live percussion, shadow puppets, and a kind of raw, vivacious theatricality that blessedly avoids the use of video and other high-tech intrusions, the vigorous ensemble puts on something like a clown show, with tones ranging from the whimsical to the macabre. "Una Carrona" is set during the 1980s genocide in El Salvador, during which Jesuits and nuns were gunned down on the streets. "The Freak" takes as its centerpiece a sweet Scandinavian girl named Gunna (Jocelyn Hall), in 1957, who inexplicably sprouts wings. The saga is told by a narrator (Beth Froehlich), which makes it one of two playlets that wrestle with the process by which experience rolls into fantasy en route to becoming legend. "Color Dream" is the most terse of the quintet — a challenging way to close out an evening that's richly textured with choreography and music, an extended fantasia and meditation on love, and despair and faith, and our quest to believe in something immortal, if not to be immortal ourselves. National Guard Armory, 854 E. Seventh St., Long Beach; Tues.-Thurs., 7 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru March 15. (562) 985-5526 or www.calrep.org. A California Repertory Company production. (Steven Leigh Morris)