D’Ambrosi’s ‘Pathological’ Theater

Some of Dario D’Ambrosi’s favorite audiences are mental patients.

“I (develop and perform) my theater inside a mental hospital in Rome,” said the Italian performance artist/playwright, whose “La Trota” (The Trout) opens Tuesday at Stages Trilingual Theatre. D’Ambrosi’s two-character institution-set “Nemico Mio” (Enemy of Mine) concludes there tonight.

“The boys (in Rome) are mostly 14 to 25, sometimes schizophrenic. Since my plays are about mental people, they recognize themselves. And I’m happy ‘cause I’m helping sick people. It’s also nice to come here, make a story about them.”

D’Ambrosi, a proponent of what he calls “pathological theater, “ originally played “Nemico Mio” at Stages in 1988--in Italian. This time he’s taking a go at it in English. “It’s very, very difficult,” he admitted of the adjustment. “But if I want to work in this country, it’s important that people understand (me).”

In “La Trota,” D’Ambrosi is a poor man who suffers “days and days eating nothing. Finally a trout comes. He doesn’t have (the heart to kill it), so he decides to live with it. He wants to live like the fish--without air--but cannot, and he dies. He bought the fish to eat, but the fish eats him . . . metaphorically. It’s like poetry,” he concluded of his fables. “Like philosophy.”

THEATER BUZZ: When the Upland earthquake struck Feb. 28, some theatergoers got an extra sound and light show at the Pantages Theatre, where “Starlight Express” was in the middle of its Wednesday matinee. Fortunately for the cast, the temblor came during a non-skating sequence: Sean McDermott’s solo, “I Am the Star Ride,” which is accompanied by a dazzling laser effect.

“When the earthquake started, people said it was like Sensurround,” reported the show’s publicist. “Everyone stayed through the number, but as soon as it was over, 300 people got up and left.” The rest of the audience bravely stayed on, however, and the performance continued uninterrupted. The theater suffered no damage.

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: The Peter Thompson/John Kander/Fred Ebb Depression-era musical, “Flora, the Red Menace” (1965), is being revived at the Pasadena Playhouse. Scott Ellis directs.

Said Sylvie Drake in The Times: “Ellis has brought ‘Flora’ a good way down the road to perestroika, but it still has a distance to go. If it’s to be any kind of menace, there’s more work to be done.”

From Jay Reiner in the Hollywood Reporter: “The score is mediocre. . . . The storyline itself unravels in an old-fashioned, overly cute style that feels more formulaic than daring, despite the political underpinnings.”

Said Daily Variety’s Timothy Gray: “Other than ‘Carrie,’ it’s hard to think of a less likely subject for a musical. The fact that the writer and producers were drawn to it once is surprising; that anyone felt compelled to return to this material passeth all understanding.”

From the Daily News’ Daryl H. Miller: ‘Ellis’ stage images are intriguing, Susan Stroman’s choreography is red-hot, and the cast performances are compelling . . . ‘Flora’ doesn’t have to be regarded as a political show. It can be enjoyed as pure entertainment.”