The play opens with repartee, but the actors are situated across the broad width of Takeshi Kata's mid-20th-century living room set. (A breadth of desert rocks sweeps over the top of the set, which is anchored by a functioning stone fireplace.) In speaking their witty repartee, the actors have to shout across the stage to be heard, in a style out of sync with their playful dialogue. This strain eventually dissolves when they physically cross in closer to each other. However, a lingering sense of artifice works against the intimacy that this very realistic play demands — even if that intimacy is a blend of love and revulsion.
That subtle emotional distance between the audience and this family was expressed by one patron, a man around 70 years old. On leaving the theater after the show, he remarked tellingly, "Boy, oh boy, I guess I come from a happy family. The play was good, but I leave plays about families like this and I think to myself, thank God."
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Mark Taper Forum
135 N. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Category: Theaters
Region: Downtown
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OTHER DESERT CITIES | By Jon Robin Baitz | Presented by Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn. | Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; through Jan. 6 | (213) 628-2772 | centertheatregroup.org
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