STAGE REVIEW : A Pragmatic Search for the Meaning of Life in ‘Truths’

The path to playwright salvation is fraught with pitfalls, none greater than when a member of one ethnic, religious and political community dares to write about another--mysterious, alien and relatively unknown. But Peter Mellencamp, like Peter Brook with “The Mahabharata,” figured out the way around that: don’t pretend to be what you are not, don’t try for authenticity, go for a semblance thereof. Deal in ideas and let the characters fall where they may.

Well, at least that’s how it feels in the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s production of Mellencamp’s “Struggling Truths,” a multipronged ideological and philosophical conundrum born of the Odyssey’s play development program. It deals with a variety of serious subjects, but retains the good sense not to take itself too seriously.

The play, set in Tibet of the 1930s through ‘50s, is an exploration of the meaning of life through the misadventures of a pragmatic sister, Rinchen (Beth Hogan), and her spiritual brother Dorje, (Peter Schreiner), as they cope with religion and politics, struggling to find those truths that will enlighten their path to survival. That path is the usual mine field, littered with contradictions and livened by encounters with the young Dalai Lama, Chairman Mao, corrupt priests, ruthless soldiers, invading Chinese and, above all, a character named Sangsang.

Sangsang is the key--the connecting link between this piece and its audience--who describes himself as the “reincarnation of a spiritual being, a ‘living Buddha.’ ” But you cannot take him at his word, because Sangsang (a puckish Victor Brandt) is prone to great exaggeration and severe human frailties, especially greed, egotism and prevarication.

“This is the territory of the mind,” he warns, chuckling, as the lights come up. “Do not worry about the reality of things, about what really is. That is as ephemeral as the breath of clouds . . . “ and we’re off on an epic, bloody journey in which humor is the great leveler and nothing remains what it starts out to be.”

Sangsang becomes Dorje’s guru--a word, he explains, that means “dangerous friend.” He manages to thoroughly confuse the boy with his temporal tastes and raw humor, while time passes, events thicken, history catches up, their friendship deepens and Dorje graduates from enthusiasm to disappointment, to disillusionment and eventually equanimity. Meanwhile, his sister Rinchen’s parallel trajectory takes her from embattled realism to embattled radicalism, communism, disillusionment and . . . eventual equanimity.

Do all roads lead to Lhasa? In a manner of speaking, yes. As Sangsang’s engaging, pseudo-mystical sideline patter tells us, life does its thing, leaving no turn unstoned.

This is a great adventure story, a sort of “Peer Gynt” of the East, that packs in too much in its 40 scenes (yes, 40) and ends up undermining its effectiveness with overcrowding. But it is clever, paints an affectionate portrait of the young Dalai Lama (played with disarming appeal by a boyish Jusak Berhnhard) and is quite wise under all its humor.

Mellencamp has a knack for punchy one-liners and the value of contradiction (says Sangsang to Dorje, after a decidedly un spiritual act: “What do you think? We’re all saints?”).

This takes the edge off of any pretension the play might have, and director Ron Sossi and Mellencamp’s characters make equally sure of it as well. Hogan’s Rinchen is a feisty warrior who embraces violent ideologies before confronting the hollowness of all doctrine. And whatever spirituality Schreiner’s Dorje eventually acquires happens only after he has lost all faith in its existence.

Both actors are strong, but it is the exuberant Brandt who carries the play, looking like one of Moliere’s wily servants disguised as a rotund Buddha.

The set is simple--a construct of platforms and a throne (Don Llewellyn is credited as “consultant”), but J. Kent Inasy’s lighting is too consistently gloomy for a piece that underscores levity even as it wades through man’s inhumanity to man. (Sossi, who imaginatively uses strips of fabric to simulate blood and raw flesh, must have cornered the market.)

Lively as so much of the dialogue is, the production rambles. Mellencamp talks too much and has too many strands of thought going at once. It’s confusing and wearing. He needs to follow his own advice and anchor his play’s universe more selectively, “depending on what you choose to see, depending on which story you listen to . . . “ Because, as he also points out, “no matter how hard you have looked and listened, there will always be a million things you have not seen or heard.”

At 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in West Los Angeles, Wednesdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (except July 28 and Aug. 12 at 5 p.m.). Indefinitely. $16.50-$20.50; (213) 477-2055.

‘STRUGGLING TRUTHS’

A new play by Peter Mellencamp presented by the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. Producers Ron Sossi, Lucy Pollak. Director Sossi. Assistant directors Niloo Razi, Bob Treser. Set consultant Don Llewellyn. Lighting designer J. Kent Inasy. Costumes Neal San Teguns. Dramaturg Jan Lewis. Stage manager Philip Berling. Cast Alan Abelew, Jusak Berhnhard, Victor Brandt, Joseph Cardinale, Beth Hogan, Mara Holland, Ken Katsumoto, Zitto Kazann, Thomas Knickerbocker, William Marquez, Peter Schreiner, Dagmar Stanec, Patty Toy, Douglas Van Leuven.