Depression in Paradise : Bill Castellino Casts His Irreverent Eye on the Ultimate Escape

Getting away from it all--permanently--is the tongue-in-cheek premise of Stephen Fischer’s tropical comedy “Coconuts and Suicide: The Limbo Musical,” opening Wednesday in the entertainment room at Kelbo’s Restaurant in West Los Angeles.

“After the opening scene, we find ourselves on a Caribbean island paradise, where a couple--husband and wife reporters--are shipwrecked,” said director/choreographer Bill Castellino. “They find out the island is a resort for people who want to commit suicide and decide to cover the story.”

The characters include a rock star, a numismatist, a romance novelist, resort director Dr. Juan, a ‘60s burnout “and three beautiful palm trees who swing and sway,” Castellino said. The songs are arranged by Coati Mundi, formerly of Kid Creole and the Coconuts.

“These are people who can afford to go to a resort to kill themselves, who have that kind of time and money,” Castellino said. “So we’re not talking about that type of depression. It’s the kind of depression those of us who are educated and aware and happening have, dealing with instant communication, being desensitized to violence by television, being hungry culturally, hungry for spiritual ideas. “The rock star has everything she ever wanted--but she wants to kill herself because she doesn’t have intimacy with one person. The romance novelist feels so much pressure to create fantasies for her readers that she’d rather kill herself than face the fact that she can’t produce on cue. And the shipwrecked couple have to deal with the issue that if someone’s going to kill themselves, do you put down the camera and try to stop them--or do you get the shot?”

Mixing comedy and social consciousness is hardly new to Castellino, 36, who made a splash in 1984 when he co-directed Elizabeth Swados’ and Garry Trudeau’s “Rap Master Ronnie,” a political spoof on the Reagan Administration.

Said Castellino: “I believe that you can do amusing, entertaining, wildly inventive stuff--and I still think we, as an acting community, owe it to ourselves to be responsible about what we’re putting on the stage.

“It’s not the same as being politically responsible. Obviously, I love doing something like ‘Rap Master Ronnie,’ where my politics can be brought directly to the stage--in seven different cities around the country. Of course, those opportunities are pretty rare. But every time you do a play, you get to show the human condition in some way. You can either do that within the spirit of being socially responsible or not.”

For him, that involves not only choosing relevant projects, but casting considerations as well.

“Wherever possible, I will show people of many colors on the stage at once,” Castellino said. “There have been plays that were supposed to be all-white, and I would not go that way. I thought, ‘Why bother? Why not show the world, show people interacting, cooperating, dealing with each other?’ ”

Right now, Castellino has a full dance card. He’s working on two new musicals: “Back o’ Town Band,” about New Orleans circa 1917; “Steeltown,” a piece about dissolute youths in his native Ohio, which will be staged in March at New York’s Public Theatre, and “Esther,” a Swados opera he will mount in Boston in February.

An acting major at college, Castellino moved to New York after graduation, was cast in Swados’ “Nightclub Cantata” and later staged the piece at the Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles.

“That was the first full-ahead directing I’d done,” he said. “I’d staged things, choreographed them--but only as an actor might do. The difference? I think the best actors are the ones who understand the little picture and aren’t concerned--whether they see it or not--with the big picture. But I was obsessed with the big picture.”

Since 1984, he has maintained residences on both coasts.

“I’d been spending at least half the year out of Los Angeles--and a good portion in New York,” Castellino said. “It was so hard for me to be away from home. I still work in Florida, Boston and Chicago. But now there are two places I can be with my stuff. I’m not going to say it’s easy. It’s expensive. But, ultimately, it’s great. Each city offers an entirely different kind of energy. And both are wonderful.”