Festival ’90 : OPEN FESTIVAL : A Mesmerizing Presence in ‘Pershing Square’

Occasionally an actor is so strange and mesmerizing that he elevates an otherwise rudimentary play to a spooky level. That’s the case with Jorge Tort as a homosexual drifter in “Eclipse at Pershing Square,” at Theater of Arts.

Tort’s trench-coated character doesn’t appear to be the creation of playwright Alfredo Rubio or director Edmund Sutton; he seems, rather, to have materialized from another galaxy. His encounters with a hustler (the edgy Ramiro Fabian), a preacherwoman (the overripe Kitty Sue Shepard) and a former Cuban lover (the silken Nikko Rey) are quirky reflections on being down and out.

“Guitar,” the opening one-act by Rubio (who writes with a sense of what it’s like to be homeless), is another tale from the urban crypt and the lurch of the disenfranchised toward any anchor. But Sutton’s direction lacks precision, and the acting is wildly uneven.

This tenement story charts a one-nighter of mellow desperation between a downtrodden ex-teacher (a bland Mark Gray) and a street woman (the sweet-singing Dionysius Burbano). But it’s a discordant chamber piece marred by the appearance of an expendable third character (the screechy Pattric Walker). At 4128 Wilshire Blvd., 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday. $10. (213) 250-7338.