THEATER REVIEWS : Thought-Provoking Marquis Does It Again in ‘Rashomon’

A husband, wife and bandit meet in a forest. The bandit rapes the wife and the husband is found dead--but by whose hand? The bandit, wife and a medium, through whom the spirit of the dead man testifies, each confesses to the crime in court. Which ones are lying? More important, why should they lie when death or the prospect of it is before them?

“Rashomon,” at the Marquis Public Theatre through Dec. 17, has often been perceived as a play about the search for a truth that is left to the audience to discover. But this work, adapted by Fay and Michael Kanin from the Japanese tales of Akutagawa, is even more about how desperately people need to twist and distort truth into a reality with which they can live.

So, although this “Rashomon” may have at its core a murder mystery, an analogous “Rashomon” might be any argument about the nature of reality as described from different perspectives: Robin Givens and Mike Tyson’s debate about what really happened behind the closed doors of their marriage, or the dispute over whether John Lennon was the perverted character of Albert Goldman’s book or the visionary of the film “Imagine.”

The delicate direction of Minerva Marquis at the Marquis Gallery captures the exquisite balance between the wife’s, husband’s and bandit’s tales, without partiality. She achieves a seamless flow as four actors alternate as the storytellers--a woodcutter, wig maker and anguished priest tormented by the lying in the trial--and the husband, wife and bandit who reenact each version of the murder.

As storytellers, the priest and the woodcutter don’t fully come to life until after the first murder scenario is enacted. Afterward, Robert Larsen’s work as the priest is quiet, but a sense of desperation and crisis gleans strength from his large, brash howling as the primitive, half-clothed bandit, Tajomaru.

Don Pugh similarly improves as the woodcutter after his fine stints as the nobly born samurai husband, but never makes the full journey to the fearful humility that should characterize his working man. As the proper Japanese wife, Susan Simmons is fine, precise and touching as the woman whose marriage is bursting at the seams even before the bandit delivers the relationship its final, leering blow.

H. D. Argenbright tackles four minor parts with a mastery that makes them major. He is at his best in the storytelling capacity of wig maker, where his street-smart cynicism provides the edge that defines the dark depths of the show. In his hands, his character’s profession comes across clearly as a metaphor: Not only does the wig maker understand people’s needs to deceive others, he is prepared to help them do so--but always for a price.

The hanging vines that partly veil the set, the Japanese door gleaming behind a gauze of burlap, and the shadowy cat-and-mouse play of the lighting all emphasize the half-hidden nature of truth in Ellery Brown’s suggestive scenic and lighting design. The patter of rain in the forest and the flute, drums, bell and cymbal of Japanese Kabuki music, punctuated with wind chimes, similarly enhance the sense of mystery.

The Marquis Theatre, now in its 10th year, is starting to show dangerous signs of becoming known as the little no-frills community theater that makes you think. With shows like “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” “Rashomon” and the upcoming San Diego premiere of Christopher Durang’s “The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” it is on its way to having produced as artistically challenging a theatrical season as any in town.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Dec. 17 at the Marquis Gallery, 3717 India St., San Diego.

Potpourri Productions, the small company atop Busalacchi’s restaurant in Hillcrest that sent “Fortune and Men’s Eyes” to New York last year, is back with a new producer, a new show and a new but familiar site.

James Vaughn, the one returning member of the original Potpourri company, has settled on Hotel San Diego, the old home of the now-defunct Broadway Dinner Theatre, as a home for “In Trousers,” a William Finn musical (playing through Nov. 20) about a married man who realizes he is gay.

“In Trousers” is directed by Tim Irving, who delivered an exceptional performance as Arnold Beckoff, the lead character in Harvey Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy” at the North Coast Repertory Theatre last year. It’s a fitting connection. Finn’s sensitivity to how a gay man’s difficulty in accepting himself can also hurt those who love him qualifies Finn as a musical Fierstein.

One of the main differences between “In Trousers” and “Torch Song Trilogy” is the focus “In Trousers” places on Marvin, the gay man trying to accept himself, rather than the gay man in “Torch Song Trilogy” trying to get his lover to accept his gayness.

Another is that “Torch Song Trilogy” is more rooted in reality, where “In Trousers” has a bit of a gay man’s “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off” naivete about it. There is not so much soul-searching on the part of Finn’s Marvin as there is a sense of the writer just reporting the facts, ma’am. Still, in the process of reportage, “In Trousers,” like “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off,” manages to be funny, tuneful and poignant, even if it stays miles shy of profound.

The supporting parts are the strongest here: talented Christine McHugh, who played the charming ingenue in the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre production of “Nite Club Confidential,” is back as Marvin’s high school sweetheart. Stephanie Cooper-Wise is terrifically funny as Marvin’s irrepressible teacher, Miss Goldberg. Together, they have one of the best numbers in the show, the “Wedding Song” in which they pretend to be happy about losing Marvin to another woman.

Andrew Marvel, as Marvin’s love object, Whizzer Brown, perfectly captures the cautious, loving, ironic, yet seductive air of the man who is listening to his lover tell him the stories that are being acted out on stage.

In the lead roles, Peter Morse has more of a struggle bringing what should be the powerful charisma of the conflicted Marvin to the fore; Debbie Luce, in the similarly difficult role of Marvin’s wife, gains strength as the evening goes on, but unfortunately seems to have accepted defeat before the battle is half begun.

The three-person band sparkles under the musical direction of Marta Zekan, and the choreography by the ubiquitous Javier Velasco (what isn’t the “Suds” choreographer designing around town these days?) is, as usual, delightful. The production crew showed admirable ingenuity and calm as it compensated for a recent theft of props and a 10-minute intermission problem with the lights.

Potpourri has plans for future productions in the Hotel San Diego space. The comfortable cabaret-style environment is not dissimilar to the Criterion Stage Left in New York, where “Suds” is now situated. It should prove a welcome venue for future shows for this and other companies.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 20. At Hotel San Diego, 339 W. Broadway.