STAGE REVIEWS : ‘Paradise Lost’ Is Passion Found

“Paradise Lost” at UC Irvine speaks its mind. Sometimes it can be blunt, addressing the audience in an angry monologue. At other times it is subtle, dropping just a word or two, then hurrying on. But Clifford Odets always has something to say in his 1935 drama, and this production articulates that message with care, restraint and power.

This is a moving piece of theater, rich and resonant, meticulously cast and staged. But ultimately, the case built by Odets wobbles. It requires a leap of faith to follow his message to its conclusion, as impassioned and eloquent as that conclusion may be.

There is plenty to think about en route. Business partners, Leo Gordon and Sam Katz, live under the same roof with their wives, a family friend named Gus, a handyman and Leo’s grown children. The seeds of pending disaster are sown early: an unfortunate marriage, problems with the workers at the plant, lingering illness and the relentless forward march of hard times.

The Great Depression is an unseen force, lurking outside the front door, banging on the windows, waiting for a chance to sneak in. The Gordons have their extended family unit, their small business and their (mortgaged) home as buffers against the ill wind blowing through the U.S. economic system.

The family becomes a compact symbol for a fraying middle-class society that starts to unravel along with the economy. The new class that is rising to power (gangsters, arsonists, grafters) represents the moral decay that attaches itself like a leech during times of crisis. Desperate times provoke desperate acts, and Odets provides vivid examples.

But desperate times can also prompt heroism, and that is what Odets wants to examine here. The father, Leo, is kind, upright and decent. He agonizes over business and family problems but keeps his distance from cold, hard facts. His sense of powerlessness is palpable.

Yet when his world shatters, he shares his revelation that the collective human spirit will prevail, that hope resides in the unspoken bond of humanity. He gives a stirring, curtain-closing speech, delivered with conviction--it is noble, but not entirely convincing. It is clear from the first two acts that it will take more than optimism to rescue this family.

The likely survivors are the women--the mother, Clara, who is a pragmatist; the daughter, Pearl, who has learned to expect nothing from life; perhaps Bertha Katz, who has already endured the unendurable. Whether Odets intended it or not, the women in this play seem to have the stuff it takes to survive, while the men stew and founder.

But the acting is so good here that the play holds together even when its philosophical case begins to crumble. Steven Benson is compelling as Leo, a good and honorable man who is simply in over his head. Stacy Ross is wonderful as his plain-speaking wife, Clara, warding off evil by offering fruit and nuts in times of crisis.

The other residents of the Gordon household are equally intriguing: the trapped brothers (Jonathan S. Greenman and T. Bradshaw Yates) and their bitter sister (Leslie Gray); the bullying business partner (Jim Donovan) and his silent shadow of a wife (Kitty Balay); and the agitprop handyman (Mark Nash), looking as if he stepped out of a Grant Wood painting.

There is also genial old Gus, played by Ron Hastings, the family friend who lives with the Gordons. Gus is a bit of a windbag, a bit of a moocher, but endearing nonetheless, and Hastings’ deft performance is a keenly observed blend of humor and pathos.

This is a play of words rather than action, but director Dudley Knight’s staging is so effective that it keeps the words and ideas flowing with an impetus of their own. The set design is a crucial key to the mix of realism and symbolism: a homey 1930s parlor, without defined walls, sends the characters into the gaping blackness beyond with an eerie symbolism of its own.

‘PARADISE LOST’ A UC Irvine School of Fine Arts-Drama production of the play by Clifford Odets. Directed by Dudley Knight. With Steven Benson, Stacy Ross, Jonathan S. Greenman, T. Bradshaw Yates, Leslie Gray, Ron Hastings, Jennifer Roszell, Jim Donovan, Kitty Balay, Stephen Jacob, Mark Nash. Set design Douglas-Scott Goheen. Costume design Richard Triplett. Lighting design Monique L’Heureux. Plays at 8 p.m. tonight through Saturday. Closes Nov. 21. Tickets $8-$9. Fine Arts Village Theatre, UC Irvine, Mesa and Bridge roads, Irvine, (714) 856-5000.