‘Rose’s’ heroics go on and on

At center stage, an elderly woman sits alone on a plain wooden bench. As she explains, she is sitting shiva -- in Jewish tradition, a weeklong period of mourning for the dead. The source of her grief? An unnamed child, killed in an unspecified act of violence. Later -- oh, how much later -- we will learn that child’s identity. But by then, we feel as if we have sat through the entire weeklong ritual, without respite.

It’s fortunate we are in congenial company. As the title and only character in Martin Sherman’s solo show “Rose,” now at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Naomi Newman is a force to be reckoned with. A vibrantly mature actress with a beautifully un-Botoxed face, Newman holds the stage for well over two hours, seldom faltering in her intensity. Under the perspicacious direction of Judy Chaikin, she lends purpose to a character that progresses from the credible to the far-fetched.

The first act charts Rose’s journey from isolated shtetl life to the vibrant intellectual center of Warsaw, where she meets the love of her life and bears his child. Her happiness is cut short when the Nazis pen up Warsaw’s Jews in the infamous Ghetto, where Rose’s loved ones are exterminated.

Sherman, best known for the Holocaust drama “Bent,” keenly evokes Rose’s wartime travails, as well as her postwar peregrinations. But upon her arrival in America, Rose’s escapades soon dwindle into silliness. Bizarrely determined to be possessed by her dead husband, she resorts to cabalistic spells of a noxiously scatological variety. And her middle-aged antics in a hippie commune are too cursory to be plausible.

“Rose” has had several productions, including runs at the Royal National and the Lincoln Center. It’s difficult to understand, then, why it wasn’t judiciously trimmed somewhere along the line. In its present form, despite Newman’s most heroic efforts, it remains unfocused, long-winded and strained.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Rose,” Odyssey, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Call for exceptions. $25-$30. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

--

‘Awakening’ edgy but lacks shock

A challenge to societal complacency underscores Frank Wedekind’s plays, starting with his first, “Fruhlingserwachen,” which the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble has correctly translated as “Spring’s Awakening.” This nobly intended new adaptation of the German playwright’s controversial 1891 classic about sexually burgeoning teens is clearly a labor of love.

Many choices made by director Evan Drane and his poised forces are striking. Set and lighting designer Francois-Pierre Couture provides an eerie decor of loosely laced black canvas crowned by red tree branches and hanging light bulbs, and Shannon Kennedy’s costumes are darkly lush. Such gallery-worthy austerity showcases the new text, co-written by Drane and the disciplined company.

The willowy Eleanor Van Hest registers unprepared adolescent Wendla’s conflicts internally, while Luke Bailey’s erotically informed Melchior wallows in detached physicality. As tormented Moritz, Nick McDow looks like Sal Mineo, sounds like Matthew Broderick, wholly appropriate.

Yet an air of the conservatory prevails, the last thing that Wedekind’s provocation needs. “Awakening” caused a scandal at its premiere, and thereafter. The narrative pulls in masturbation, homoeroticism, child abuse, suicide and more. Even Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater amended the pivotal rape in their Tony-winning 2006 musical.

Here, despite Melchior’s savagely beating Wendla, the pathos of Moritz’s Act 1 curtain, the general topicality, things aren’t exactly unsettling. There’s a symbolic point to putting Jen Bailey’s bauble-strewn Ilse en pointe, a Brechtian bravura to the school tribunal, a casual punch to Hans (David Hassett) and Ernst (Matt Scheuller) finding love. But shocking, disturbing, visceral? Not so much.

Casting youthful actors as adults either works (Olivia Choate’s valiant Frau Gabor) or distracts (Morgan Early’s collegiate Frau Bergmann). Still, authenticity isn’t the problem. Although this respectable outing impresses -- the final scene evokes Cocteau -- it’s debatable whether it carries sufficient raw vitality to awaken modern audiences.

-- David C. Nichols

“Spring’s Awakening,” Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; also 8 p.m. on July 23. Ends July 26. $20. (310) 396-3680, Ext. 3. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

--

An exhausting Australian thriller

Two actors talking in a room -- that’s theater at its purest and most elemental state. That’s also the setup for David Williamson’s minimalist “Sanctuary,” a tense two-character drama that receives an occasionally gripping but over-explanatory production from the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts.

This claustrophobic Australian thriller takes place at the home of a legendary journalist (David Ross Paterson) who has retired from covering international conflicts for Time magazine and CBS. His guest for the evening is a self-righteous biographer (Mick Thyer) who is intent on grilling the boozy old man about the ethical holes in his career.

An unconvincing (and violent) twist just before the second act inverts the moral rake of the play and sends the young biographer tumbling off of his high horse. “Sanctuary” resembles Ariel Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden” in the way power relations between captor and captive can flip-flop from moment to moment, destabilizing both the characters and the audience.

Williamson (whose screenwriting credits include “The Year of Living Dangerously” and “Gallipoli”) knows how to write smart dialogue, but he lazily flow-charts the psychology of his characters, explaining key moments with poorly contrived revelations of childhood trauma. Despite Eric Tucker’s economical direction, “Sanctuary” is an unruly experience -- in the words of one character, the story feels both exhaustive and exhausting.

-- David Ng

“Sanctuary,” Veterans Center for the Performing Arts, 446 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m., Mondays and Tuesdays. Ends July 22. Free, but reservations recommended. (888) 398-9348. Running time: 2 hours.