STAGE REVIEW : Tulis McCall Tells the Story of Womankind

Those who wonder what makes people leave their houses and pay money to sit in a room with an actor are advised to go to the West Coast Ensemble, where Tulis McCall is performing her own script, “What Everywoman Knows.” For actors, McCall’s show will be a clinic in the art. For the rest of the audience, it will be little short of a communion.

When everything else is stripped away, it is communion--between actor and audience, actor and text--that we want from the live event. As McCall’s play continually reminds us, this is a very ancient desire, almost instinctual.

It’s as old as the clan huddled around a fire at night, listening to the storyteller in the group. McCall’s character, Everywoman, in a pretty peasant dress and shawl, is updated to a timeless American rural context with nothing more than a cane and rocking chair as props. But she presents herself as nothing more than a storyteller, telling nothing less than the story of womankind.

A big task, but this is a smart, clever woman. She is smart enough to keep her stories short and to a minimum--the Adam and Eve tale, of course, plus portraits of four extraordinary 19th-Century American women: presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull, birth control advocate Margaret Sanger, Jane Canary Hickok (a.k.a. Calamity Jane) and former slave and suffragette Sojourner Truth. She is clever enough to know that she doesn’t have to sell herself to us. “I was born talkin’, and I believe that if you do somethin’ well, you should do it a lot.”

Few characters talk as well as Everywoman. The intriguing twist is that, as a part of her universal identity, she vocally blends all the American dialects together. At first, your ear senses either an odd speech impediment or a foreign accent. Then you’re amazed at McCall’s technical chops. Then you just sit back and listen.

If this wasn’t done so well, it would be just a gimmick for an actress to play some historical figures. And it isn’t as if we need to know more about some of them (the superb “Wes and Jane Show” at the Itchey Foot provides a rich precis on Calamity). What McCall and director Joanna Kerns have managed is a show that suggests women in a cosmic firmament, revealed to us by a very earthy time traveler.

The link between these women is their need to buck the trend. Woodhull thought she was good enough to run for the White House, so she did. Sanger saw no reason why women had to resort to coat hangers, pinhooks and alleyways to prevent unwanted children, so she assisted them. Jane liked horses and guns and adventure, so she found it. Sojourner freed herself from slavery, so she thought women should stop talking and free themselves too.

The portraits and presentation have the directness and austere yet approachable simplicity of a Whistler painting. The difference here is that these images talk back to you, and when it’s over, you don’t want to leave the room.

At 6240 Hollywood Blvd., on Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 3 p.m. Runs indefinitely. Tickets: $12-$15; (213) 466-1767.