STAGE REVIEW : Pretension Drives Updated ‘Car Cemetery’ Into Ground

It may have seemed like a good idea on paper, but the Open Fist Company’s decision to combine Fernando Arrabal’s highly politicized “Car Cemetery” with “Child of God,” a pretentiously simplistic investigation of the life of Christ by Open Fist artistic director Ziad Hamzeh and actor Michael Denney, is a case of ambition overtaking good sense.

Hamzeh, who directed and also designed the impressive set of massive stone doors, scaffoldings, abandoned autos and heaped television sets, has attempted--unsuccessfully--to meld obdurately contradictory styles. The result is tedious, crushing chaos.

By itself, “Car Cemetery,” written in 1957 by the self-exiled Arrabal as a slam against the fascism of Francisco Franco in his native Spain, is romantic, indirect and showing its age. This desolate landscape, populated by submissive prostitutes and the unseen homeless living and rutting in the rusting cars, and tended by a Mephistophelean “butler” (Anthony Ponzini), is a creaky metaphor for the human condition.

Freedom is personified in the sax player, Emanu (Scott Mosensen), whose generosity and unshackled soul are betrayed by a Judas from within the ranks--a fellow musician on a selfish, mercenary mission (Dean Yacalis).

It is not likely that this play could really fly even under optimal conditions. Its style today is too self-conscious--which may be what prompted Hamzeh to tack on his own form of booster rocket.

But “Child of God” is such a pontificating, one-sided dialectic addressed by Child/Man (played by co-author Denney) to a seemingly catatonic god (Burr Steers as the speechless Jesus), that the sheer weight of its pretension topples the whole enterprise.

Even Hamzeh’s and Denney’s attempts to inject modern signposts and lighten up the self-importance seem self-important. Images of God as RoboCop and a spoofing of the Crucifixion are as subtle as lead. And when Man says to Jesus, “What’s with this homeless thing? You’re 33 years old, what’s wrong with settling down?” the colloquialism is preachy and phony. It neither stands on any merit of its own, nor draws us into the play, nor blends with the already fragmented styles of the piece.

This said, it is also clear that this adulterated “Car Cemetery” is the over-reaching stumble of a talented company in a hurry to set itself some major hurdles. For all of the show’s needless convolutions, the acting is competent and, in the case of Ponzini, Denney, Mosensen, Yacalis and Anthony Donato (as a mute musician), it is spontaneous and unencumbered. The physical layout, with its spatial desolation and complex lighting scheme and videos (by Bill Lackemacher) denote ambitious determination.

But care must be taken in choosing what to be ambitious about. The failure of “Car Cemetery” etc. is not one of nerve but of taste. Somewhere along the line, Hamzeh and Denney lost sight of the fatuousness of their own script and of their presumption in deciding to combine it with Arrabal’s.

Between the latter, which has not worn well, and the former, at once naive and pompous, there is little glory to be gained. This is a fitful, effortful, entirely too high-minded and thankless exercise.

* “Car Cemetery” with “Child of God,” Open Fist Theatre Company, 1625 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 24. $15; (213) 882-6912. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.