STAGE REVIEW : Unflinching Purpose Guides Elovich Play

Richard Elovich is not the first observer to compare the scourge of AIDS with the genocide of the Third Reich.

In his one-man play, “If Men Could Talk, the Stories They Would Tell,” Elovich juxtaposes the attitudes and emotional states of men facing death in these two historically disparate but arguably parallel situations.

“Nothing works faster than fear,” is his litany, but his subtext might read: “An individual’s courage is equal to the specter of death.”

Elovich plays all six characters in his 70-minute tour de force at Sushi Performance Gallery, the second offering of this year’s Neofest. It is no coincidence that the New York actor enters to the somber strains of a Bach Invention, since Elovich moves from one personage to another with the graceful facility of Baroque counterpoint. He projects serene composure, even when expressing rage, and his unself-conscious basso sets up a compelling cadence.

Danny, a Jewish AIDS patient around whom the drama evolves, is treated by a Czech physician who is a survivor of Theresienstadt, Hitler’s penultimate way station for Czech Jews on their way to annihilation. Because Danny is a comic-book illustrator by trade, the doctor wants Danny to document the doctor’s experiences under the Nazis, which he narrates in great detail to his patient.

Joseph, the flamboyant, gay biology teacher, is simultaneously the doctor’s volunteer assistant, Danny’s buddy during his declining health, and Danny’s unrequited love interest from some unspecified, earlier student days.

But, despite the eloquence that pervades Elovich’s paean to survival, the artifice of coincidence mitigates his play’s higher aspirations. That this single character should so seamlessly integrate Danny and the doctor seems cloyingly convenient.

In a different context, where the characters’ Jewish identity were not a central theme, Joseph would be an archetypal Christ figure, the compassionate servant ridiculed by society. Joseph may be Elovich’s alter ego, because the program notes make no small issue of Elovich’s commitment to political action on behalf of those living with HIV infection. By the play’s conclusion, Joseph has moved from helpful volunteerism to an act of political confrontation.

But this easy moral is only a part of Elovich’s parable. The title comes from the play’s last line, Danny’s sad reflection about his father’s silence. In a brief sketch, Elovich has Danny’s mother interpreting his father’s stony poses to her son. Elovich is far from silent, and his play is also a plea for men to break out of the emotional ghetto of masculine stoicism.

Like most performance artists, Elovich writes his own material, but he wisely enlisted Cecil MacKinnon to direct and Michael Stiller to light his production.

Under MacKinnon’s cleanly analytical direction, Elovich traversed the sparse stage--austerely occupied by a few chairs, a sleeping bag and an ominous hospital operating table--with unflinching purpose.

“If Men Could Talk, the Stories They Could Tell” which was first performed earlier this year in New York’s Performance Space 122, ends its three-day run at 8 o’clock tonight at Sushi.