STAGE REVIEWS : ‘THE SHADOW BOX’ SHINES WITH HUMOR AND PAIN

Stop-Gap’s production of “The Shadow Box” is intelligent in its interpretation of the subtleties of this complex drama. The company’s enthralling treatment does perfect justice to the play’s outrageous humor as well as to its profound pain.

Michael Cristopher’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1978 play, set in a hospice, concerns three families who must come to terms with the imminent death of a loved one. The subject matter is treated with a humor that’s as suitable as it is unexpected, and director Don Laffoon makes sure that there’s a electric charge of truth beneath every funny moment and a certain lightness to the heavy emotions. The result is as rich as it is heartbreaking.

The performances of Flora Burke and Marnie Crossen as the irascible old Felicity and her weary, middle-aged daughter Agnes are perfectly in tune with each other as they convey the women’s disillusionment and long-suppressed emotions. Burke’s portrayal of Felicity is sublime as she creates a woman whose body and mind are betraying her fiery spirit. Crossen shows a remarkable understanding of Agnes as she exposes the pain and self-doubt beneath the competent facade. However, Gary Bell, who plays the terminally ill laborer from Newark, approaches his role in a studied manner that softens the impact of this character, whose concerns are simple. Rochelle Savitt gives an expressive performance as his wife, whose surface show of bustling activity makes her plaintiveness all the more heart-rending.

Less certain are the portrayals of the remaining set of characters--Brian, the intellectual who comes close to convincing himself that dying is the best thing that ever happened to him, played by Robert James; Brian’s eccentric ex-wife Beverly, played by Valerie McIlroy, and Brian’s lover Mark, played by Jon Sidoli. The chemistry among them never quite takes. James is appealing, but he has a stoic quality that in no way suggests Brian’s passionate nature. McIlroy, although believable as the battle-worn glamour girl, lacks a tautness that would make her character’s aims more apparent. Sidoli makes too much of Mark’s bitterness, which tends to obscure the deep resonance of the character’s turmoil. However, Sidoli is powerfully affecting in the monologue in which Mark tells Beverly how he met Brian.

Victoria Bryan designed the set of warm, natural woods that offers an effectively Spartan yet attractive background for the play’s emotional explosions.

“The Shadow Box” continues through tomorrow at the Forum Theatre, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. For information, call (714) 772-7727.