THEATER REVIEWS : PLAYHOUSE RALLIES WITH ‘ZOO STORY’

“Ragtag” may be the kindest way to describe most of the productions that have sailed in and out of the 6th Avenue Playhouse since the San Diego Repertory Theatre moved to its Lyceum home last year.

Happily, that word doesn’t apply to the Playhouse’s most recent tenant, Little Boots Productions, putting on Edward Albee’s “Zoo Story” through Sept. 27.

A short (40-odd minutes) one-act play may not seem like the most accessible debut for a new company. But under the right direction, this particular piece, Albee’s first, can pack enough food for a full evening’s thought. Rametin, an Iranian emigre who doubles as the producer, provides that direction, setting forth the composition’s delicacies with flourish and flair.

Against the shrub-backed brick walls of a park--maybe not Central Park as the script calls for, but to set designer B. Zarguni’s credit, quite effectively a park--actors Christopher Redo and William Peterson engage in a muscular duet about communication and connection.

Redo is Peter, a well-off executive in a publishing firm, doing his habitual Sunday reading on a bench. Everything from his Rockports to his steady, thoughtful manner suggests the stolid, predictable decency of a man in full control of his emotions.

Then comes Jerry, the ultimate transient, played by Peterson as a nervous, twitching veteran of “laughably small” apartment spaces in run-down buildings. He wants to tell Peter about the trip he just made to the zoo. On the way to the story, he asks questions that tear away at the lonely lack of connections just under the smooth veneer of Peter’s life, and tells other stories that reveal the less surprising lack of satisfactions in his own.

In a play where the emotional thread gives the story the direction that leads it to its extreme and painful conclusion, Redo’s and Peterson’s attention to the subtext is impressively convincing.

The careful, often rosy, lighting by Tom Phelps softens the darkness of Albee’s vision. The uncredited classical guitar music, described as an original composition, heightens the wistful, melancholy nature of the work.

Performances at the 6th Avenue Playhouse, 1620 6th Ave., Thursday-Sunday through Sept. 27.