Biting, Bitter ‘Nonsense’ in Hollywood

An angry father can’t get his mind clear of the molestation and murder of his 6-year-old daughter. He wants Ronnie Taylor to murder “The Nonsense” who did it. Ronnie is torn between integrity and the father’s inability to pay.

In Kevin Cotter’s bitter, biting one-man play at Hollywood’s Theatre/Theater, Ronnie finally makes up his mind. Working out in the gym, attacking a punching bag, lifting weights, doing sit-ups, he’s also working out the events of a lifetime that led him to his decision.

It’s a logical choice Ronnie makes, for Ronnie, that is. And we feel most of that logic, and his anger, in Dan Hildebrand’s spring-coiled performance as Ronnie, under Barry Philips’ intricately controlled direction. Hildebrand takes us into Ronnie’s British working-class world with a lot of humor, an edgy cockiness and an obvious native intelligence glowing behind the dark tale he tells.

A “nonse” is a child molester in the gutter slang Ronnie learned as he was growing up, stealing, being sent to a correctional institution and being discovered as a likely prize fighter. After his release he seems to have straightened out, going on to win Olympic silver for Great Britain and becoming a pro champ. But nothing pans out.

An accidental ring fatality crushes his boxing career and he falls back into the gutter and a gangland “council.” Even his engagement to a girl named Fran is broken when he can’t understand her trauma over being molested by her own father. All these events lead him irrevocably in one direction, and one choice in the biggest contest of his life. It’s a fascinating journey we take with him.

“The Nonsense,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m. (Dark tonight.) Indefinitely. $12; (213) 464-8938. Running time: 55 minutes.

Dim View of Humanity in Huff’s ‘Mud People’

Everyone looks for hope, but not as desperately as some of the characters in Keith Huff’s “Mud People,” at International City Theatre in Long Beach.

Claybourne Rising is a small Southern town where hope is in short supply until a Stranger appears on a stormy night. To Barb Zesto and daughter Tooley, who is also her sister, he is an angel, silent, watchful, able to heal.

The playwright is quoted as saying that “whenever the human imagination . . . embraces the mystery of human existence, miracles can, and do, happen.” His play says more. It talks about greed and human fallibility, and the evil we visit upon ourselves. A pat happy ending doesn’t alter the playwright’s dim view of humanity.

Shashin Desai directs the work with compassion and humor, and his actors share his empathy with Huff’s world. Notable are Fran Harrison as Barb, who tries her best to escape her own hell; Liza Rivera as her wise teen-age daughter; Randall Brady as the clean-cut local who wants to take Barb away from it all, and J. David Moeller, subtly frightening as Barb’s husband/father.

Don Gruber’s set, Paulie Jenkins’ lighting and Michael Kern’s sound design are at the center of this technically exceptional production.

“Mud People,” International City Theatre, Harvey Way at Clark St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 17. $15; (213) 420-4128. Running time: 2 hours.

More Gentle Insight From Horton Foote

Playwright Horton Foote has made a career of defining the lives and idiosyncrasies of the inhabitants of fictional Harrison, Tex., as in his two one-acts at the Angels Theatre in Silver Lake.

“The Midnight Caller” examines the inmates of Mrs. Crawford’s boarding house and the trauma of two new visitors. Helen Crews (Lisa Pedersen) has lost mama, and most of her reputation, over her affair with drunken Harvey Weems. That reputation puts boarder Alma Jean’s nose out of joint (Suanne Spoke). To amplify her disapproval, Ralph Johnston (Glen Lutz), a new boarder arrives. She wants no fallen women or men where she lives.

Foote is kind to the boarders and along the line his kindness, and good performances, bring a forthright reality to these particular Harrison denizens.

Two performances give sparkle to “Blind Date,” a light piece about a socially backward girl and her aunt’s misguided efforts to pair her up. Pedersen is hilarious and authentic as the aunt, and perfectly matched by the tongue-in-cheek humor of Tony Maggio as the uncle (he’s also memorable as the drunk in “Caller”). Monica Torres and Terrence Atkins as the youngsters fall into caricature, but keep the antic mood. Both plays are staged by Paul Brennan, who knows the territory and makes it breathe.

“The Midnight Caller,” and “Blind Date,” Angels Theatre, 2106 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 16. $10-$15; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours.

Three Men in a Boat in Callahan’s ‘Adrift’

There’s a gaping hole that almost sinks this otherwise worthy stage adaptation of Steven Callahan’s chronicle of his 76 days alone in a rubber life raft in the stormy Atlantic. It’s called an intermission.

Callahan’s lifelong dream of sailing the Atlantic alone came to pass in 1982, but his boat Solo sank and he was cast--as he called his book--”Adrift.” There is little tension in the story. Callahan did live to write the book. What makes Judy Montague’s stage version intriguing is the fact that three actors play Callahan.

Scott Brandon is the emotional Callahan, who flops like a fish out of water from one decision to another. He is constantly at odds with the rational Callahan (Kiloh Fairchild) and the physical Callahan (Evan MacKenzie). The three bicker, cajole and comfort one another, retrieve each other from despondency and keep each other awake. They battle interminably.

The performances are sharply defined and full of energy under Ted Tobin’s theatrically imaginative direction. His staging is exciting and colorful. Then that intermission comes, the mood and tempo are shattered, and the brief, low-key second act crawls toward the eventual rescue. It would be more effective as one piece.

“Adrift,” Gene Dynarski Theatre, 5600 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Wednesdays & Saturdays, 2 & 8 p.m.; Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. $17.50-$18.50; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Shepard One-Acts Show Their Age

The two Sam Shepard one-acts in “2 X Sam” at Theatre/Theater were first produced in the mid-’60s--and look it. It would take a lot to make them come to life.

“Cowboys 2” is the better written of the pair. Chet (Michael Trent) and Stu (Michael Falkner) are bums heading downhill fast, trying to distract themselves by playing Shepard’s comic book game of mythologizing the Old West. It doesn’t help.

Under Juan Valdivia’s kinetic direction, only Trent digs into the text and finds its values. Shepard’s writing doesn’t give Falkner a clue as he skates along its surface.

“Icarus’ Mother” is just silly today. Five people on a picnic, waiting for a fireworks display, get involved watching a jet circling high above them. These actors all look in different directions as they watch the plane, and that’s how Valdivia directs the play. Nonsensical, pointless monologues drone on, as does Shepard’s fascination with the least involving of trivia. The inadequate performers don’t give Shepard a chance, and he returns the favor.

“2 X Sam,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 20. $10; (213) 464-8938. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.