Acts of Desperation at Relevant Stage

You’ve got to respect the ambition. Starting up at the Warner Grand, a barn of a place compared to the Taper and International City, among other elite theatres in Southern California. Then there’s the subject matter. A teenage suicide spurred on by bullying, a teenager on a killing spree.

The first was built around a film documentary in which the mother of the suicide and a key player in the peer pressure tell their side. A photo of the girl—so young, so sweet, with her doggy at her side—forces you to ask how it could have happened? Dance sequences by the ever reliable Cindy Bradley and her San Pedro City Ballet suggested some of the emotions (and suggest that you do likewise). Dramatic scenes were swallowed up in that large space.

For the second piece, we moved much closer to the stage. You could see the pressures impinging on a young boy, teenagers can be so cruel, but it was still hard to see the psyche twisting.

Producer Ray Buffer is ambitions, both in challenging content and in whipping the Warner Grand into a playable space. Over Here, Over There, a critical look at the Iraq war, opens May 29. The info is at TheRelevant Stage.com.

Victory at Fountain

Athol Fugard has been writing about his native South Africa for decades. Now that he lives in southern California, he manages to combine a high voltage conflict with frighteningly impassioned performances and still embody the inherent conflicts that have surfaced since apartheid fell in 1995. The country’s citizens, black and white, have been forced to face realities that they would rather not. They face what they fear, face what they hate, face what they are. Perhaps they discover where to go from here.

Lovensky Jean-Baptiste is coiled and violent, greedy for riches and revenge. Tinashe Kajese is splendid—angry, terrified, she boomerangs between extremes, and curls up inside her cocoon. Morlan Higgins must face the disappointment that comes from a pretense of tolerance that turns out, to his horror, to be mostly paternalistic blindness. Through Mar. 23 at 5060 Fountain Ave. in East Hollywood. For tickets and info call (323) 663-1525 or browse FountainTheatre.com.

Carnage at Actors Gang

It is hard to understand what this production achieved. One asks what were they trying to do? A sardonic look at “ah shucks” evangelist pulling every trick in the book for his own benefit is all hellfire-and-brimstone and a feel good bunny rabbit puppet. Then comes the conflagration—and everything goes to hell (or is it heaven?).

The preacher is sure that this is the end of days and keeps jumping up, expecting to be swept into heaven. V. J. Foster gives a brilliant performance—vain, foolish, crushed, venal, charismatic. The play climaxes with a more than faintly demoniacal sermon by his successor.

Actor’s Gang has taken their best shot—crisp direction, meticulous acting, an abstract set that allows pop up surprises. Yet in the long haul, perhaps you have to be of some Christian persuasion to get it (the point).

Through Mar. 24 at 9070 W. Venice in Culver City. For tickets and info, browse TheActorsGang.com

Byplay

I was so glad that I saw @Heart at the Ruskin in Santa Monica, San Pedro resident J-Powers came up with a touching play about a volunteer in Afghanistan and the wife he leaves behind. Both have issues, but they need each other so much and not only for the children. Will one of the San Pedro or harbor area theatres take an interest in this gifted playwright? It does play one more weekend at 3000 Airport Blvd. For tickets and info call (310) 397-3244.