STAGE REVIEW : ‘THE TRAVELER’ ALMOST MAKES IT

It has been said that illness is the West’s only form of contemplation. Some such notion lies behind Jean-Claude van Itallie’s new play, “The Traveler,” at the Mark Taper Forum.

It traces the spiritual journey of a successful young composer (John Glover) who suffers a stroke on the operating table and finds himself being drawn into the stars--and then falling back to the heavy gravity of Earth, where he must relearn the ways of the natives.

It’s a comedown, but also a rebirth. Previously, the composer had put his life into separate compartments. Now, he finds himself flooded by sensation. There’s a kind of bliss to that. Never has the universe said more to him. But he can’t say anything back that makes sense. When the words come, they’re the wrong words. “Yeah” for “No.” “Watergate” for “Water.”

To match the right sound with the right idea is hard labor. To build a sentence is like building a pyramid. Sentences, he realizes, are civilization. But he finally puts one together.

“My name is Daniel. I am a composer.”

Who wouldn’t applaud? Both for Joseph Chaikin, the actor on whose story “The Traveler” is based, and for John Glover, the actor who has brought our traveler to life in a such an affecting and funny way. We don’t pity Glover’s character from the outside. We take the journey with him, and it’s a long one. It is a beautifully sustained performance.

That can’t be said of Van Itallie’s script. “The Traveler” is really two plays. The first is a monodrama for Glover and a non-speaking chorus (known as Souls), enacting his inner visions, which don’t cease after he’s left the hospital.

These scenes have the benefit of a superb splash of projections and lights, created by Jerome Sirlin and Beverly Emmons. But they also are burdened with some fairly obvious choreography and imagery--a vision of Dante’s gate, for example, with ABANDON HOPE engraved on the lintel, and devils skulkingabout.

Even with a director as good at this sort of thing as Steven Kent, the phantasmagoria is a bit heavy-footed. Compare Chaikin’s magical radio tape of Sam Shepard’s “The War in Heaven” (also based on Chaikin’s illness and also directed by Steve Kent), where we see into deep space without having to visualize a thing.

The other half of “The Traveler” is a hospital drama that we seem to have seen on TV. Again, the all-understanding girlfriend (Gretchen Corbett) who patiently informs the recuperating hero that he’s angry at her because he doesn’t want to be dependent on her. Again the possessive older brother (W. Dennis Hunt) who hopes this thing will bring them into better “communication.” Again the teen-age nephew (John Cameron Mitchell) who magically understands the invalid’s garbled words, being unspoiled by experience and up on Indian lore.

These scenes may be based on fact, but they play like fiction, and not particularly well-worked-out fiction at that. Since Corbett and the hero apparently broke up months ago, why does she keep hanging around? Spiritual journeys are taken alone--a point made by Arthur Kopit’s play about a stroke victim, “Wings”--and there’s no real need for any of these people to figure importantly in the story. But if they’re going to be there, we should understand why they are there.

We do understand why the hero’s agent (Paddi Edwards) is there--so that we can dismiss her as a selfish, money-grubbing clod. Again, how obvious can you be? A program note from George Orwell warns writers not to let “the existing dialect” finish their scenes for them. That’s exactly the problem with the psychological scenes in “The Traveler”: We know the dialect too well.

The hospital scenes are quite convincing. Not so much when the doctors and nurses start hopping like kangaroos (our traveler is still out of it) as when they are doing the things they usually do, such as discharging you before you’re ready to go home, and jabbing you three times with a needle before they get a vein.

“Sorry.” “Sorry.” A collective shiver went through the audience as poor Glover waited for the attendant to swab his arm and try again. As I say, we were with him all night. But the play has a long way to go.

‘THE TRAVELER’ Jean-Claude van Itallie’s play, at the Mark Taper Forum. Director Steven Kent. Set design Douglas W. Schmidt and Jerome Sirlin. Projections Jerome Sirlin. Costumes Carol Brolaski. Lighting Beverly Emmons. Original music and sound Nathan Wang. Choreography Nancy Spanier. With John Glover, Gretchen Corbett, Lance Roberts, W. Dennis Hunt, Tony Maggio, Todd Jefferson Moore, Rose Portillo, Tina Preston, Michael Ennis, Diane Diefendorf, Ellen Gerstein, Ruth Hawes, Paddi Edwards, John Cameron Mitchell, Glenn Berenboim, Paul Ortel. Plays Tuesdays-Fridays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2:30. Tickets $17.50-$23.50. (213) 410-1062 or (714) 634-1300.