STAGE REVIEW : ‘Burn This’ Ignites San Diego Repertory : Theater: Four characters tell hard truths about love and loss in a searing production of the Broadway hit.

Love isn’t easy in Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This.”

It hurts right from the beginning in this powerful play, now in a searing production at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.

When the play starts, the hurt comes in the wake of a loved one’s death.

Anna and her gay roommate, Larry, are grieving because their third roommate, Robbie, whom they loved, died in a boating accident with his gay lover.

Anna is also angry because Robbie’s family never knew him, never acknowledged he was gay, never went to see his work as a dancer.

And Larry is also jocular, because humor to him is a dueling sword used to keep pain at bay.

At least, they think they’re hurt and angry and funny.

It turns out that neither of them begins to understand the intensity of what hurt, anger, humor and even love can be until Robbie’s older brother, the fiercely heterosexual Pale, walks into their lives with the uprooting force of a natural disaster.

Did Pale love Robbie? Yes--with the same howling cry with which he expresses shame at his brother’s homosexuality. Is he hurt and angry at his brother’s death? He is an open wound, flailing at everything in sight, with his fists and his words. Is he funny? Almost constantly, with the humor that comes from telling the truth about people.

Does he love Anna, whom he has just met at his brother’s funeral?

Enough to try to tear apart both her life and his, just so they can be together.

Pale’s theme song is Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire.” Wilson told the director, Sam Woodhouse, that he listened to that music over and over when writing about Pale, according to a staffer at the Rep.

Woodhouse plays the song on stage, in addition to an electrifying original score by Lawrence Czoka.

It fits.

All the pieces fit in this powerful jigsaw puzzle about four interlocking lives--for there is a fourth character, Anna’s rich, nice-guy boyfriend, Burton, who vies with Pale for her troubled heart.

Woodhouse has assembled an excellent cast for the San Diego premiere of what was a Broadway triumph in 1987 for John Malkovich as Pale (Malkovich is now playing the part in London) and Joan Allen, who won a Best Actress Tony as Anna.

Deborah Van Valkenburgh lacks some of the delicacy we might expect of a dancer-choreographer. She seems a little too like Pale in an earthy sort of way. But she brings an intelligence and beauty to the part to make it work.

Jon Matthews, who was so good as Anton in Nikolai Kolyada’s “Slingshot,” part of the Soviet Arts Festival at the San Diego Rep last year, is terrific as Larry. Scene-stealingly funny, he also shows you glimpses of the depths of loneliness that are the wellsprings of his humor.

Jeffrey Meek’s Pale is a live wire that turns the electricity on. The moment he strides on stage, one can feel a jolt of adrenaline.

And Andrew Barnicle takes what might seem to be the thankless role of Burton, the poor little rich screenwriter and makes us respect both the understanding and the pain of one who observes life better than he lives it.

All four characters are so vividly real that at times they seem to overpopulate the Lyceum Stage, even though this genuinely large stage has never seemed bigger, thanks to Robert Brill’s expansive design of Anna’s and Larry’s New York loft.

The large, level unpainted living space, with minimal personal effects, and windows through which you can see snow falling, conveys the bareness of their lives.

Lighting by Ashley York Kennedy alternately warms and chills the space, moving us through day and night. The lighting also highlights the theme of fire, and the different forms it takes: a match lighting Anna’s cigarette as the show opens. Burton lighting candles to try to conjure up a romantic mood for himself and Anna. The fire that fills the darkness when Pale (who is always burning up) and Anna embrace.

The costumes by Christine Dougherty fit the characters perfectly: Pale, who is as hard on his well-made clothes as he is on himself and everyone around him; Larry, who likes a little flash in his attire; Anna, with her Bohemian tastes, and Burton, with his quiet sophistication.

It is hard not to take these characters home with you. It is hard not to take home the revelations they encounter. And for good reason.

“Lies happen every 10 seconds,” says Pale. But not here. Wilson, with the gallant aid of Woodhouse, his actors and designers, is telling the truth about love and life with every breath. The truth, thank goodness, is hard to resist.

“BURN THIS”

By Lanford Wilson. Director is Sam Woodhouse. Set by Robert Brill. Costumes by Christine Dougherty. Lighting by Ashley York Kennedy. Sound by Lawrence Czoka. Fight direction by Martin Katz. Stage manager is Julia A. Moore. With Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Andrew Barnicle, Jon Matthews and Jeffrey Meek. At 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays with Sunday matinees at 2 through Aug. 4. At 79 Horton Plaza, San Diego, (619) 235-8025.