‘PASSION’ FOR PLIGHTS OF ASIAN WOMEN

Don’t be fooled by the punkish leather duds performer Jude Narita dons for “Karate & Bamboo,” the first of five vignettes that make up her “Coming Into Passion/Song for a Sansei” at the Powerhouse. Hers is a gentle voice, softening her teen-ager’s hard edges. This is one kid who will listen to her Issei (Japanese immigrant generation) grandparents.

She’s told by her Nisei parents that she’s too tall, too messy and too stupid to be a proper Sansei (third generation). But she heeds the lesson of her elders, who endured the World War II concentration camps in California: Give in to nobody. She hears this; then, she smiles.

Charming determination is the phrase that came to mind watching Narita move from one scene to another. “Good Job” is her ironic portrait of a Vietnamese hooker who knows she has it better in the club she works than the women in cages on the street. She tries out her best English on us, making us feel right at home. Some home.

“No. 852” shows the other side of female exploitation as a Filipina mail-order bride (Narita’s accents are phenomenal) is interviewed by a friendly sounding off-stage male voice. The tone slides from blackish comedy (she’s comically innocent of her plight) to social protest as this compliant, desperate woman faces the price she must pay for “a good man.”

“Little Boy,” a brief fairy tale of Hiroshima children, and “Nisei Day,” a Nisei woman’s declaration of independence from a mother who bent too much to authority, complete a quintet that reveals an uncommonly theatrical feminist artist. With Peter Flood directing, Narita has found an equilibrium between rage and humor, while burning cultural stereotypes on a celebratory pyre.

Performances at 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica, are Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends June 17. Tickets: $10, (213) 392-6529. ‘BURNING BRIGHT’

In his production notes, director Brian Dotseth reports that John Steinbeck’s 1951 Broadway version of his “play-novelette,” titled “Burning Bright” (it flopped), was a case of “destroying much of the poetry and passion” of the original. But hearing the original, which is what Dotseth has staged at Theatre of Arts, it’s difficult to spot what poetry there was to destroy--and the passion is barely visible.

Thus, when trapeze artist Mordeen (Lizanne Schader), whose husband Joe Saul (Victor Campos) is sterile, begins to consider her fellow performer Victor (Michael Weir) as a babymaker, she tells him, “If I am wrong about anything, it will be my wrongness.”

These aren’t very well-written words, and they’re certainly not well adapted to the voice. But these particular voices, especially Campos’ and Edward Gierke’s as Friend Ed, must often speak in laughably prosaic paragraphs without a contraction in sight.

Victor predictably resents being told that his baby is Joe Saul’s, and all this muscle-bound lug can think of is to take Mordeen away. Steinbeck resolves the conflict with the finesse of a punch to the jaw, capping it with a homily on the ills of male pride.

Three acts is a lot for “Burning Bright’s” small points, but what’s inexplicable is the act-by-act shift in location from the circus to a farm to a ship. The characters and relationships (and Dotseth’s adaptable wood plank set) remain constant; only their professions change. It’s a crude experiment that seems to baffle a cast already working hard to keep their head above the flood of language. Weir, though, brings some shading to his tough guy.

Performances at 4128 Wilshire Blvd. run indefinitely on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $10, (213) 380-0511 or (818) 980-4816. “ ‘RANGEMENTS”

Elaine Osio’s “ ‘Rangements,” at the Group Repertory Theatre, is like two TV movies in one: A mother (Joan Crosby) is dying of cancer of the ovaries, while her grown daughter (Patricia Lee Willson) suffers from Down’s syndrome. Irreversible diseases and disabilities inject drama and emotion into a story without the writer having to invent much, and it’s rare when such concoctions aren’t a cheat.

“ ‘Rangements” brings nothing new to this insubstantial genre, except offering a view of some novel therapy for Down’s syndrome patients. This is served up by Dr. Steele (Drew Deighan), who uses clever magic to make a point about how Willson’s Paula needs to cut the knot of mom’s apron strings.

But the tougher trick of connecting with the audience on the theme of adulthood and responsibility (Paula, retarded or no, is 33, after all) fails to come off.

Paula’s brother Mike (Larry Kelley) and his wife Ellen (Michelle Manning) get some hard knocks from Osio for not being able to take over for mom, while a maudlin speech by Crosby condemning the doctor for taking her baby away is supposed to make us root for her. It only confuses the play’s focus.

Willson does her best to make the picture as clear as possible with a generally charming performance. Crosby and Kelley are still finding their roles and the rhythms of their scenes. Director Frank Farmer hasn’t helped them much; he, in turn, isn’t helped by Gregory Wolf’s horribly arranged set.

Performances at 10900 Burbank Blvd. on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 11. Tickets: $10, (818) 769-7529. ‘RIDDLE ME THIS’

Before “Columbo” there was “Riddle Me This,” a quaint detective spoof by Daniel N. Rubin. It’s not getting the roundhouse staging it deserves at Actors Forum, but we get some clues as to why it was a 1932 Broadway hit.

As in “Columbo,” the murder is shown to us for starters. In this case, it’s the respectable and suave Dr. Tindal (Don Whyte) knocking off his wife. Then Tindal tries to help the coppers and a needling crime reporter, Russell Kirk (Bob Ross), find their man, who’s in fact a convenient fall guy for Tindal’s plot.

Rubin’s twist (more refreshing in some ways than Peter Falk’s rumpled sleuth) is that Kirk is a better detective than the pros. Director Audrey M. Singer’s cast fails to spoof things up enough to cast a comic veil over the incredible strong-arm job Kirk does to this plot. His outplaying the police at their own game is a joke carried too far, made only too obvious by a well-meaning but charmless production.

Performances at 3365 1/2 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Studio City, are Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends June 28. Tickets: $10-12.50, (213) 850-9016.