Theater Reviews: Bleeding Through, Answer the Call, Exit Strategy, The Changeling

SATURN RETURNS refers to the phenomenon of the planet’s nearly 30-year trip around the sun and that journey’s life-changing astrological effect as it returns to the astral position it occupied at the birth of a character named Gustin. In Noah Haidle’s intriguing but unformed play, Gustin navigates between the important life changes during this planetary effect on Gustin at age 28 (Graham Michael Hamilton), 58 (Connor O’Farrell) and 88 (Nick Ullett). Near the end of his life, Gustin suffering insurmountable loneliness, clings to the company of visiting nurse Suzanne (Kristen Bush, who portrays the play’s three women). His middle-aged ghost is seen pleading with his 29-year-old daughter not to leave him, while she tries to find him a romantic mate to set herself free of his desperation for human contact. Finally his youthful self longs for his sweet but unstable wife to simply love him without fear. Individually the three stories are written with compelling relationships, but the point of their onstage intersection, while obvious from the title and suggested by the situations of loneliness, is never quite established by the text. The acting, under David Emme’s sensitive direction, is outstanding — particularly Bush, who finds the difference among her three characters with remarkable specificity. With Ralph Funicello’s crisp scenic design, supported perfectly by Lonnie Rafael Ulcerous’ lights and Nephelie Andonyadis’ costumes, the physical atmosphere is beautifully delivered. All that is missing here is a real purpose to the story. South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 & 7:30 p.m.; through November 22. (714) 708-5555. (Tom Provenzano)