STAGE REVIEW : ‘HARRY’ CLOSE TO WELL-DONE

Bill Talen’s solo show, “Cooking Harry,” at the Cast Theatre only lasts an hour; but there’s something to it. The title refers to Talen’s Uncle Harry, once born-to-run, now condemned to barbecuing burgers out by the pool.

But, as with a Spalding Gray monologue, the real subject is the storyteller. Talen starts in that Iowa backyard with Uncle Harry, but he is soon hitching a ride to New York, from which he hops a jet to France, where he does an unkind piece about Uncle Harry at an avant-garde theater festival.

And then he finds himself back in Waterloo with Uncle Harry--who has heard about the piece (word gets around the global village fast these days) and who doesn’t appreciate being turned into someone else’s “comic material.” Will Uncle Harry impale him on his barbecue fork or hand him a chicken wing?

Talen is an engaging guy and a good storyteller, particularly when he’s telling one on himself. But he doesn’t just tell it. He acts it, skillfully enough so that we see the other party, such as the truck driver who throws him out of his cab when he starts knocking President Reagan.

Abroad, he learns that French stewardesses aren’t taken with Midwestern ingenuousness, that French critics don’t come to the theater to amuse themselves and that French food can be disgustingly visceral.

Most important, he learns that he is tied to that Iowa backyard. “Cooking Harry” ends on a forgiving note that suggests Garrison Keillor, another influence that Talen is still assimilating. Two years ago at the Taper’s “Car Plays” festival, he seemed a cocky performer. Here, he’s in transit, somewhere between manic and mellow.

That makes for some bland moments when this could be any personable young actor telling stories on the Carson show. Talen will have to settle on a persona as distinct as Gray’s and Keillor’s if he wants to emulate their success.

Another problem: Uncle Harry seems fairly dim. That suits his latter-day role as “the last of the practicing Americans.” But we ought to be able to meet Harry as he was before he capitulated to the pool and the kids--Harry the hell-raiser. We hear about his walking out of town on his hands, but I personally didn’t see it.

Still, it’s a shrewd tale of a young man taking on the big world and discovering that everybody comes from some place. John Lion directed “Cooking Harry” at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre. Ellen Sebastian re-staged it for the Cast’s Free-Ways series.

Sebastian’s design naturally features Harry’s barbecue, glowing like a round copper altar under the lights.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, at 7 p.m. Sundays, through Jan. 25. 804 N. El Centro Ave. (213) 462-0265.