Timely Revival of Fugard’s ‘Blood Knot’

The revival of Athol Fugard’s story of racial unity, the 1961 “Blood Knot,” at Occidental College’s Keck Theatre, couldn’t be more apt. The drama may be set in a one-room shack near Port Elizabeth, South Africa, but South-Central L.A. is in our minds.

The production, directed by Shabaka B. Henley, not only brings fresh perspective to the recent turmoil in Los Angeles but it’s also true to the inherent humor in the story of two half-brothers, one black and the other light enough to pass for white--which he does.

Fugard first staged this play before an invited audience in an abandoned factory in Johannesburg, and sitting in the beautiful Keck Theatre with its gleaming hardwood floors makes it impossible to imagine how daring and dangerous that first production must have been.

What we have now is a play whose simple story about black brothers corresponding with an unwitting (and unseen) white woman pen pal continues to reverberate, more now than before.

The play’s singular flaw is its schematic design. But much of that is masked by Henley’s fluid staging and the fine actors: Bob Devin Jones as the illiterate Zachariah, who squats on his feet all day guarding a gate at a white man’s factory, and Joe Marinelli as the literate Morris, who took advantage of his light skin and got a white man’s education.

Now guilt (the blood knot) has brought Morris home. What happens when their young white pen pal writes that she’s coming to visit hurtles the drama into its funny and disturbing dimensions. Scars are exposed as the brothers no longer can ignore the fact that under the skin they are not the same. Yet the blood knot tightens, as in universal brotherhood.

The set by L.J. Houdyshell creates the inside of the shack and artfully fills the wide proscenium stage with the rocks, ravines, crooked fences and tall grasses that surround the shantytown.

“Blood Knot,” Keck Theatre, 1600 Campus Road, Occidental College, Eagle Rock, (213) 259-2922. Saturday, July 31, Aug. 9, 12, 18 and 26, 8 p.m.; Aug. 8, 22, 29, 2 p.m. $8-$16. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

‘Blood of My Blood’ Inventive but Uneven

“Blood of My Blood,” at the Complex, employs magic realism to dramatize the power of familial loyalty. A young Latina (the earnest Victoria Gallegos) forges a blood knot between her dead parents and her exasperated fiance (Michael Beattie) in order to be able to give herself to the young man. It’s a matter of family blood. Her fiance must wring his hands in it.

Written and directed by Anne Garcia-Romero, in her professional debut, the play is inventive but uneven. It shrivels into tiresome sophomorics when the young, nagging romantics are alone on stage and, in sharp contrast, turns to fresh air when the dead parents materialize to check out their future son-in-law.

These fantasy moments are credible and, as the mother, Virginia Paris (the antagonistic math teacher in “Stand and Deliver”) is luminous. Ray Victor lends a haughty panache as the authoritarian father. The main prop, a hideous red velvet-covered loveseat, is a jarring distraction.

“Blood of My Blood,” Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 466-1767. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 12. $10. Running time: 1 hour.

Jack-of-All-Trades Stages ‘Lovers’

Stanley Bennett Clay, who has brought to black L.A. theater such hits as “Ritual” and “Willie and Esther,” is at it again, writing, producing, directing and designing wardrobe and lights for “Lovers,” at Theatre of Arts.

When it comes to middle-class life in Baldwin Hills and African-American pros in show biz, Clay knows his audiences even better, one suspects, than his territory, and he knows that well enough.

There are three relationships in “Lovers”--one straight (Stacey Johnson and Lawrence Lowe), one gay (Gregory Eugene Travis and Bryan Edney) and one featuring warring old marrieds (William Hubbard Knight and Michelle Davison).

Subtlety, irony and satire are not Clay’s forte or intention. He aims for the heart and the belly, and, judging by the response Sunday, he knows what he’s doing.

Most flavorful are Knight as the dapper father and the vivacious Johnson as the appealing career woman, portfolio in hand. Davison is overripe as the harridan mom.

“Lovers,” Theatre of Arts, 4128 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 732-3602. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sunday matinees, 3 p.m. Ends Sept. 6. $12.50-$20. Running time: 2 hours.

‘Water Ballet’ a Sexual Roundelay

The team that staged the acclaimed “Cloud Nine” at the West Coast Ensemble a few years ago--director Allison Liddi and producers Sharon Hallett and Alicia Millikan--have fashioned “Water Ballet,” another sexual roundelay at the Melrose Theatre.

Playwright Lori Saveriano’s L.A. drama, set largely around a back-yard patio pool, follows the interweaving actions of two ill-matched couples. The women come off better than the men.

Milly (Bonita Friedericy) is in her third trimester and miserably married to Kramer (Alden Millikan), a glib, cynical accountant who’s too immature to be a father and too insecure to be a husband. Slim, shallow Rietta (Jenifer Chatfield) gleefully sleeps around a lot notwithstanding a steady relationship with the genial and charming Michael (Gil Johnson).

The play overcomes a tick-tock stasis and springs to life when the young boyfriend brazenly declares his love for his girlfriend’s best friend, Milly. Milly, married and big-as-a-house, dismayingly returns his kisses.

Mortals may be fools but this is ridiculous. It’s impossible to overcome the illogical attraction of the boyfriend for the wife, and vice versa. The production’s bristling scene, terrifically staged, is the showdown between the love-smitten youth and the husband. The tension is very much like Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan fighting over Daisy in that hotel room in “The Great Gatsby.”

As pregnant Milly, Friedericy is credible creaking around under a balloon of padding. Chatfield and Johnson catch the metallic lust of sex mates. And Millikan, in the most complex performance, enjoys a callow affability as the troubled husband. The sleek set is designed by Karen Torell, and the action modulated by Jane Lloyd’s exceptional lighting.

“Water Ballet,” Melrose Theatre, 733 N. Seward St., Hollywood, (213) 660-8587. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 23. $16-$20. Running time: 2 hours.

Nabokov Premiere at Complex Is No Event

“Courtesy of the estate of Vladimir Nabokov”?

It can’t be. But that’s what the program says. Is this a sly Nabokovian joke? The piece at the Complex plays like the laugh’s on us. It is dismaying to report that “The Event” is Nabokov all right--the English-language premiere of his 1938 play, translated by the author’s son, Dimitri Nabokov.

From time to time, in the course of this frenetic play about an artist, his wife and her violent (unseen) ex-lover, touches of the perverse Nabokov break through.

But Todd Williams’ production is too arch, too garishly costumed (as in the old “Gong Show”), and, finally, so stupefying that it almost qualifies as a shaggy dog story.

Fourteen actors, some clownish, cavort through this cracked Nabokovian mirror. The contentious husband and wife (former pro footballer Bo Eason and Famke Janssen) are actually appealing together--sort of like Joe Palooka married to a high-fashion model. “The Event,” Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 466-1767. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sunday, 6 p.m. Indefinitely. $22. Running time: 2 hours.