STAGE REVIEW : ‘ANDREA’ OPENS EYES, HEARTS TO LIVES OF MENTALLY RETARDED

In a way, it sounds like “Mission: Impossible.” How can you write a play about retarded adults that is funny but never demeaning, dramatic but never despairing, hopeful but never simplistic?

David Willinger, the playwright of “Andrea’s Got 2 Boyfriends,” has the answers. And you can see them in action at the 6th Avenue Playhouse through April 26.

This remarkable play, a co-production of the San Diego Repertory Theatre and the Los Angeles Theatre Unit, is based in part on the lives and words of three mentally retarded adults, the playwright’s sister, Andrea Willinger, and two friends, Richie Cordez and Freddie Cidelli, from the facility where she lives, and their social worker, Mike Morissey.

A series of carefully orchestrated discrete scenes provides glimpses into the daily dramas of these four lives. There are some ostensible story lines: Will Mike get Andrea to join a workshop in which she might learn to be semi-independent? Will Mike, who is getting increasingly impatient with his job and the lack of progress he sees, quit? Will all of them, working together, get Freddie to stop running away from the facility to wait at the bus stop, bags in hand, for a ride to a fancy hotel in which he expects to start living a glamorous life?

But the real movement from vignette to vignette is an inward one. Quite simply, we get to know these fairly complex characters better, in all their desires, limitations and frustrations. And through them, we begin to appreciate the particular problems faced by mentally retarded people and the people who care for them.

The play begins with Andrea, Richie and Freddie playing cards. The personalities emerge quickly. Andrea, her brow furrowed in intense concentration, slaps down her cards, loudly chastising Richie for saying he is going to marry her (“I can’t marry you. You’re my boyfriend,” she says) and chastising Freddie just as loudly for saying he might marry Janice, another mentally retarded adult in the facility.

Throughout, Richie watches her in rapt adoration, whether she is bossing him around, reading a letter from his sister out loud (Richie can’t read), or getting the right answer when Mike asks how many pieces of bread it takes to make a sandwich (Richie guesses seven). Freddie is less involved; he has a tendency to drift off into his own fantasies.

Mike, who also serves as a narrator and explicator, steps down from his office to tell the audience something about the facility--”It used to be a hotel; only the clientele has changed”--and the people in it.

Under Constance Grappo’s direction, this aside to the audience, one of many, seems a natural part of the seamless flow. It is complemented by Grappo’s set, in which three rings of story can operate simultaneously. The work/playroom of Andrea, Richie and Freddie is the main focus, but off to one side, on a raised platform, is Mike’s office and off to the other side is Freddie’s bus stop. Appropriately, the door to Mike’s office and the bus stop sign stand slightly askew.

This play could not be pulled off without actors who can simultaneously portray foibles that may seem funny to an audience, without sacrificing the dignity of their characters.

These actors do the job beautifully.

They spent time studying the mentally disabled, and it shows.

Tabi Cooper is inspired as the intensely bossy, but tender, Andrea. It is hard to imagine a more difficult, but appealing, heroine. Chris Pass renders Freddie instantly recognizable as the fellow with dreams who will not acknowledge his own limitations.

Ralph Seymour, the only member of the cast who did not originate his part in Los Angeles, is irresistible as the sweet and surprisingly wise Richie. Tom Fisher offers solid support as the sorely tried Mike.

The lighting by Jim Blickensderfer navigates the swift succession of scenes with professional ease.

“Andrea’s Got 2 Boyfriends” premiered at New York’s La Mama in 1983 but achieved its present form in Los Angeles, where the director, playwright and actors fine-tuned the story, the costumes and the sound. Their attention to detail pays off right down to Andrea’s socks--one red one and one pink one.

During its successful 11-month Los Angeles run, it won an award for ensemble performance from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle, a Media Access Award for accurately portraying people with disabilities and seven Dramalogue awards.

San Diego gets this important and moving show for only six weeks.

“ANDREA’S GOT 2 BOYFRIENDS”

By David Willinger. Direction and set by Constance Grappo. Lighting by Jim Blickensderfer. Stage manager is Bob Hannah. With Tabi Cooper, Ralph Seymour, Tom Fisher and Chris Pass. At 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, with Sunday matinees at 2. Closes April 26. At the San Diego Repertory Theatre’s 6th Avenue Playhouse, 1620 6th Ave., San Diego.