A Look at Soviet Real Life in ‘Yelena’

Theatrical glasnost continues, as Moscow’s Theater on Spartacus Square arrives Friday at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Ludmila Rasumovskaya’s modern Soviet drama, “Dear Yelena Sergievna,”.

“It’s a very dark play,” noted company general manager Pavel Belinsky via an interpreter. “Four Russian students come to their teacher to celebrate her birthday, but really to get the key for the safe where their exams are. University is the key to their future, and they will go to any length--emotional blackmail, physical attack--to get what they want.”

Written in 1980, the five-character piece (which will be performed in Russian, with simultaneous translation on earphones) was forbidden for several years at home. “It was considered too avant-garde,” Belinsky explained. “It shows how the Russian people really think, the way their life is now--black market, bribes, cheating, lying.” In the informational/cultural exchange, he hopes, American audiences “can see the other side of the moon--compare their life in the United States to the Soviet Union, and wonder if that could ever happen here.”

BACK TO PADUA: Actually it’s back to Cal State Northridge, as the Padua Hills Playwrights’ Festival/Workshop begins its summer camp-out tomorrow at the campus’ Art and Design Center.

Maria Irene Fornes, Jon Robin Baitz, David Henry Hwang and Marlane Meyer are among the workshop instructors; the festival of public performances is July 19-Aug. 12.

On Saturday, a retrospective gala kicks off Padua’s summer sojourn. The outdoor benefit will be hosted by Ed Harris, Tim Robbins, Amy Madigan, Alfre Woodard, Kathy Baker and Beth Henley; the program features excerpts from Martin Epstein’s “The Man Who Killed the Buddha,” plus Leon Martell’s “1961 El Dorado,” John Steppling’s “The Insistence Upon the Listener” and Murray Mednick’s “Coyote VI: The Sacred Dump.”

Information: (213) 285-9268.

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Michael Bennett’s Tony-winning anthem to showbiz, “A Chorus Line,” is back in town, playing in a new production at the Las Palmas Theatre.

Said The Times’ Sylvie Drake: “There is the underlying feeling that the company has not been together long enough to develop the polished ensemble this show demands. But given some staying power, those rough edges should smooth out.”

Drama-Logue’s Polly Warfield toasted “a ‘Chorus Line’ as fine as any. Despite its razzle-dazzle, it’s a particularly intimate show, and it gains much from the new intimacy of this smaller theater. The show and the space get along fine.”

In the Daily News, Lawrence Enscoe dubbed it only a “fair” staging: “This is an excessive production, not terribly long on vocal ability and with several moments of blunt, graceless choreography.”

Ed Kaufman, in the Hollywood Reporter, found this “Chorus Line” revival “still as alive, touching and electric as it ever was. And the immediacy of the surroundings pulls you in a lot closer to the emotional quality of the show.”