STAGE REVIEWS : A Gentle, Enticing ‘Truck’ Ride

Forget tradition. But completely .

Wake up to non-traditional casting, use of language and, yes, standards. The Cornerstone Theater Company’s experiment in theater with the Angelus Plaza Senior Activity Center at the downtown Angelus Plaza housing complex takes the word community to the nth degree of seriously. Its production of “The Toy Truck,” which opened Friday on the Plaza promenade, is like nothing Los Angeles has ever experienced.

It takes a certain number of long words to describe just what it is. More than theater, it is a cross-generational induction into the joys and terrors of performance for a group of multiethnic, multilingual senior citizens from all walks of life except theater. It is unlikely many of them had thought much about theater except as something to attend. Some appear aggressively to enjoy the experience. Some are wondering what hit them. Still others are wandering through this adaptation of “The Clay Cart,” a 1,600-year-old Sanskrit play, looking pleasantly bemused.

This sense of amazement mixed with good-natured enthusiasm characterizes the volunteer acting in this convoluted love story from the 4th Century. “The Toy Truck” is driven by an infusion of Cornerstone Company actors who essentially do the steering and supply the octane. Sometimes the vehicle roars along, sometimes it stalls.

Imaginatively updated to 1992 Los Angeles by Peter Sagal and the company, and staged by Cornerstone co-founder Bill Rauch, “Toy Truck” is the story of good-hearted “escort” Vivian Carlson (Ashby Semple) who falls in love with retired Angelus Plaza resident Charlie Braxton (Obaka Adedunyo), but is hounded almost to death by an unwelcome suitor (Christopher Moore), the bratty nephew of a politico.

The program provides a synopsis of the tortuous plot and subplots, filled with episodic suspense. The sprawling contingent of villains, victims and fools includes a massage therapist turned Buddhist monk (Benajah Cobb), a singing maid (Remy P. Hicks), an unjustly imprisoned Korean candidate for county supervisor (Pok Nan Chon) and a chorus of audience members who specialize in interrupting the action the better to clarify it.

The production’s marriage of pros and non-pros is tentative at best, but the uniqueness of the union in itself commands attention. Performed without ever becoming confusing in English, Spanish, Korean and Mandarin Chinese (with the periodic interruptions mentioned above), this long, distended, often clumsy “Toy Truck” also becomes seductive, frequently funny and in its own gentle and unprecedented way, enticing.

The translation often weaves pedestrian American greetings with florid phrases more closely retained from the Sanskrit. Sometimes this works to comic advantage, (“She’s as hard to forget as an Andrew Lloyd Webber melody”), sometimes it doesn’t work at all (“I throw you out as one throws out a glass whose rim has cracked”).

But the mood and circumstances of the production as community event invite a forgiving attitude. One has to jettison preconceptions. This is, yes, a form of theater as therapy. Its primary focus is the exceptional involvement of citizens with a process of performance that gives a shot in the arm to their relation to themselves and to one another, lending fresh dignity to their place in the world.

The phrase is repeated often in this play that, in America, “old age reduces you in people’s eyes.” It is precisely this perception that Cornerstone’s experiments in community theater are designed to countermand. But it might be easier to achieve in the future with a shorter and less complex piece.

More such experiments would seem to be on the way in the Los Angeles area since the nomadic 6-year-old company has now decided to settle in the city.

Their decision could hardly come at a more propitious time. Greater Los Angeles, still reeling from its riots, can single-handedly provide the company with all of the cultural diversity in need of empowerment that it seeks and on which its unique brand of theater thrives.

“The Toy Truck,” Cornerstone Theater Company and the Angelus Plaza Senior Citizen Activity Center, Angelus Plaza, promenade, 255 S. Hill St., Bunker Hill. Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends Aug. 15. $7 donation; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes. Luis Zapata: Mateo Obaka Adedunyo: Charlie Braxton Ashby Semple: Vivian Carlson Christopher Moore: Sam Stephens Margaret Vargot: Sam’s Mother Andy Lucas: Sam’s Chauffeur Sandra Howard: Roberta, a Baby-sitter Remy P. Hicks: Vivian’s Maid Julie Yang: Mei Lin, Vivian’s Assistant Benajah Cobb: A Massage Therapist Pedro Torralba: A Casino Dealer Mary Hrovat: A Gambler Ed Yen: Shark, a Thief Juanita Smith: Charlie’s Ex-wife Andre Crosbie: Charlie’s Grandson Jimmy Didia: Vardie, retired limo driver Pok Nan Chon: Mrs. Kim Fermin A. Romero: Sgt. Marquez Elizabeth Ruiz: Sgt. Martinez Salvador A. Velazquez: District Attorney Nelly V. Thomas: Defense Attorney Ann Boullon: Judge Vic Watterson Sam’s Bodyguard/Security Guard/Bailiff/1st Prison Guard Marguerita Medina 2nd Prison Guard

Peter Sagal, Eunai Shrake, Herbert Landaverde, Lisa Lung: TV Reporters Catherine Ruthenberg: Leader of the Chorus Estrellita Bustos, Chien Chou, Sang Yu Yul: Chorus

Producer Stephen A. Gutwillig. Associate producer Leslie Tamaribuchi. Director Bill Rauch. Sets/costumes/graphics Lynn Jeffries. Lights Loren Brame. Composer/sound designer Nathan Wong. Choreographer Julie Rifkind. Technical director Kenneth Scott Wiener. Assistant director/stage manager Salvador A. Velazquez.