STAGE REVIEW : LIVES OF DISABLED CAST BASIS OF ‘GROWING PAINS’

“Growing Pains,” conceived and written by Victoria Ann Lewis and developed in a 12-week workshop, is loosely knit, uneven and performed for the most part by non-professionals--disabled adults and teen-agers.

It isn’t great theater. But it’s more than therapy. It has moments--funny and moving--and for all its lightness, it makes a strong point.

Presented Monday at the Mark Taper Forum Annex, the mixture of readings, music and humor is based on the life experiences of its cast.

It’s performed by actors with hearing and visual problems, nervous disorders and severe paralysis, on a stage full of crutches, sticks, canes and wheelchairs.

But discard any sentiment. You won’t earn points if these people make you dewy-eyed.

“I just want to tell you all I’m sitting here with the biggest lump in my throat. You’re such an inspiration.” Peggy Oliveri delivers the line from her wheelchair with ironic mockery.

The appreciative laughter from Monday’s audience, made up of friends and family, some disabled themselves, clearly showed how meaningless and even alienating that sentiment is.

“Growing Pains” is about growing up disabled: dealing with “normal” kids who think they can catch the disability like a disease, missing out on a social life, being treated as if breakable.

Breakable they’re not. Teen-ager Daniel Morey, whose dreams of athletic glory changed “when I had my first stroke,” dances vigorously to a rock beat, as does young, soft-spoken, visually handicapped Keith Fisher. (Musicians Adam Ward Seligman, James Brenner and John Fitzgerald provide high-quality accompaniment.)

Teen-ager Derek Reeve, confined in his wheelchair, made friends in high school by running a football pool. “Maybe in college I should be a bookie,” he jokes. The show is also about growth as an adult. About not hating oneself. About independence. Driving, living alone, sexuality.

Doctors told Richard Lubin, wheelchair-bound at 20, that his sexual life was over. “After seven years, with a wonderful woman--and plenty of time--I discovered they were wrong,” he said.

Ann Finger, a writer, is married and the mother of a small child.

“Men whistle at me when I’m driving. In a car, I pass as able-bodied and a sexual being.”

Pretty Lake Nofer sings “you’ll never know me if you go away. I’ve got lots of plot and drama and the guts to play it all.”

Talent may vary, but guts they all seem to have. To paraphrase Oliveri, just because they need help doesn’t mean they’re helpless.

Free performances continue at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital Auditorium, Downey, at 2 p.m. Saturday; the Community Rehabilitation Services on June 13, 2 p.m., and at Bernardi Multipurpose Center, Van Nuys, June 14 at 2 p.m.