An Adaptation of Synge That Works

The closer you look inside Mustapha Matura’s “Playboy of the West Indies,” his Ireland-to-Trinidad adaptation of John Millington Synge’s “Playboy of the Western World,” the more remarkable it becomes.

The British-based Matura’s transferal of names and places is clever enough: Pegeen becomes Peggy, Christy becomes Ken, County Mayo becomes Mayaro. But just as Synge captured an Ireland before its political and spiritual independence, so Matura captures another British island colony a few years (1950) before its freedom. Trinidad, though smaller, resembles Ireland’s shape; even the name ( trinity in Spanish) conjures up the menage a trois in “Playboy.”

Seldom has such an apparently radical adaptation remained so faithful to the original, yet seemed so natural that it feels like an original itself. Les Hanson’s West Coast Ensemble production may not be as remarkable as the play, but it is as handsome, fiery and lilting as Cameron Arnett as Ken, the boastful outsider whose tales prove to be his rise and fall in a backward village.

On Stuart R. Baur’s palm-laden set and crowned by lighting designer Patrick Pankhurst’s mood-changing cloudscapes, Mayaro becomes a microcosm of the world. Peggy (sharp-tongued Kymberly S. Newberry) is faced with the choice of meek, safe Stanley (a perfectly doe-eyed Clyde Talley III) or Ken, a fantasy made rippling flesh. The town factions divide between the pseudo-respectable (Peggy’s father Mikey, played by a standard Michael Darrell), the opportunistic (Gammy L. Singer as a sly Mama Benin) and the lusty (Jozie Hill and Trish Evangeline as funny, pining girls).

Like the Irish brogue, the Trinidadian accent becomes a verbal weapon for people too ridiculously proud to back down from their positions. Ironically, this is played out on “Discovery Day” (celebrating Columbus’ arrival on his third voyage)--Matura’s ingenious way of linking the arrivals of two striking but dubious strangers. The elemental passions are as strong as an off-shore gale, while the final sense of loss--in a Third World context--is somehow both terribly sad and stirring.

“Playboy of the West Indies,” West Coast Ensemble, 6240 Hollywood Blvd. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 12. $15; (310) 788-5900. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

A Strange and Odd ‘Romeo and Juliet’

So, we wonder, how could the same theater that does Matura / Synge so well do Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” so dreadfully? Within minutes, Tony Tanner’s staging is so transparently off the tracks that it’s only a question of how total the final damage will be.

For starters, instead of the traditional street fight, we’re given a feeble, quasi-Elizabethan dance with men in Confederate and Union uniforms. Yes, the program assures us, we’re in Verona, Italy. No mention of a war is heard, and how, in any case, would the Gray and the Blue co-exist in a town? The gaggle of accents includes cockney, yet excludes Southern dialect. Not only does Alison Vail’s Lady Capulet play or look no older than Eleanor Joy Lind as her daughter, Juliet, she actually seems younger. Finally, Lind and Kevin Scott Allen’s Romeo have all the chemistry of a very bad high school experiment.

Typical of this strange show is the flyer for the theater’s current Shakespeare festival, which quotes Lord Capulet greeting his dinner guests. Tanner’s version, though, cuts the Lord altogether, leaving the impression that Juliet is being raised by a single parent (the same flyer quotes “Hamlet’s” Fortinbras--also cut by Tanner for his concurrent “Hamlet”).

“Romeo and Juliet,” West Coast Ensemble, 6240 Hollywood Blvd. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 10. $15; (213) 788-5900. Running time: 2 hours.

‘Fortune’ Hovers Near Boiling Point at Coast

While there’s no getting away from the simplistic geometry of John Herbert’s dramatic set-ups in his prison drama “Fortune and Men’s Eyes,” a good director with the right cast can give this melodrama some incarcerating heat. Few could have guessed that David Galligan, a prolific maker of cabaret and musical entertainments, would be the man to keep “Fortune’s” heat near the boiling point.

And at the Coast Playhouse, he has assembled actors who can really physicalize Herbert’s often stock characters. None are more stock than the new guy in the cell, Smitty, yet Jay Underwood grows before our eyes from a quiet pushover to a muscled dominator. Smitty becomes top gun in the Darwinian laws that rule this play, but Underwood turns him into a guy trapped inside all that muscle and power. In this way, Deborah Raymond’s and Dorian Vernacchio’s set, Michael Gilliam’s lights and Rick A. Dominquez’ sound are more than “authentic”; they become metaphors of Smitty’s head.

David Packer’s textured Mona, a pathetic whipping boy innocent, tries to bring out the poetry in Smitty, but it’s tough vets Queenie (Steven Walter-Kirk, both deliciously vile and indulgent) and Rocky (Alex D’Andrea, strong but Method-heavy) who draw Smitty down. The pain is palpable.

“Fortune and Men’s Eyes,” Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 6 p.m. Ends July 5. $16-$19; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours.

Groundlings’ Scheer Shines in ‘Con Carne’

In spite of the fact that the Groundlings remain a male-dominated comedy group, women do get their chances to shine. Julia Sweeney and Melanie Graham are two recent examples, but few Groundlings have displayed the gifts of Mary Scheer in “Groundlings Con Carne,” directed by Phyllis Katz.

A mere minute into a wry lampoon of hokey folk musicians trying to cash in on “The Civil War” craze and Scheer has already shown her chops as a violinist, a singer, a writer and a cutting, deadpan comic. In another scene, she is a nutty Beverly Hills retiree who has hung out by the pool too long, and in another, she is an absurdly prim church organizer.

Scheer has what the best moments here are full of: intelligence meshed with irony, as in a clever meeting of hicks with a weekend hunter (Tim Bagley, Chris Darga and Vic Wilson), or Wilson’s sharp depiction of a yupster helping to clean up South-Central. You’d never know we’re in an election year from this program; but while the group is weak on politics, it’s a notably sharp improv unit.

“Groundlings Con Carne,” Groundlings Theatre, 7303 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood . Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. Indefinitely. $15.50-$17.50; (213) 934-9700. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

‘Concert Piece’ Looks at a Marriage Restored

Considering the title, Jennifer Taub’s lovelorn “A Concert Piece for Four Voices” at the Itchey Foot Cabaret, would suggest a musical work. Instead, composer-pianist David Smooke merely provides the harmony--and sometimes plodding atonality--accompanying Taub’s fairly pedestrian look at a marriage restored.

David Dionisio as a cheating husband and Tracy Pulliam as an angry wife meet in a coffee shop before proceeding to the divorce lawyer’s office, while Taub and Jim Boulgarides act as supporting voices. Sometimes those voices are the inner, over-florid silent thoughts of the couple, sometimes other characters (Taub’s Venice psychic is an oasis of humor among rather dry sorts). What this needs--and co-directors Taub and Dionisio haven’t found--is the melding of the distinct pitches in a string quartet.

“A Concert Piece for Four Voices,” Itchey Foot Ristorante, 801 W. Temple St., Wednesdays, 8:30 p.m. Ends June 24. $10; (213) 960-2096. Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes.