STAGE REVIEW : ‘Saint Plays’ Exhaust Audience With Action

In “The Saint Plays,” a series of seven short plays by Erik Ehn about the lives of the Catholic saints, Sledgehammer Theatre attacks the audience from all sides. Literally.

The action does not limit itself to the stage of Saint Cecilia’s (formerly the 6th Avenue Playhouse). Actors race to the back of the building, on the sides (where they hang from the rafters--upside down and right side up) and overhead, where a circus-like act within one scene occurs on a net suspended over the heads of the audience.

So, instead of theater-in-the-round, we have audience-in-the-round. And the way the electric music by Christian Hertzog makes the onetime funeral parlor shake, it often feels as if the action is rumbling up from the floorboards as well.

The 7-year-old Sledgehammer, the brainchild of co-founders Scott Feldsher (artistic director) and Ethan Feerst (executive director), has been consistently remarkable for its ability to theatrically assault the senses. Somewhere from this company’s collective feverish brain, it always emerges with fresh surprises.

Nevetheless, the excesses of the company’s methods have sometimes drowned out its message, which happens occasionally in the course of this dense 2-hour-and-45-minute production of “The Saint Plays.” But more often, “The Saint Plays” is so strong that the company’s exciting and vibrant methods electrify the meaning.

Ehn wrote these plays to show parallels between the lives of the saints and a set of invented modern-day characters, sometimes using the historical figures, sometimes just making obvious references in his contemporary narratives.

In “Songs for the Bone Orchard” (written expressly for this setting), Ehn’s St. Cecilia is a Mexican heiress who convinces her husband and his brother to buy and bury the bodies of undocumented workers killed in San Diego. Although the 3rd-Century St. Cecilia never appears, it is a contemporary version of the original story of a wealthy Roman woman who dedicated her life, and that of her husband and his brother, to buying the bodies of martyrs and giving them decent burial.

In “Una Carrona,” the story of the martyred Rose of Lima, who suffered for the sin and corruption in her society, finds its parallel in the atrocities visited on the people of El Salvador by their government. In “Radio Elephant,” St. Barbara, who was killed by her pagan father because of her studies of Christian texts, becomes an inspiration for a young girl from the Bronx who is threatened and harrassed by her father, but is desperate to learn.

Under Feldsher’s direction, the actors take several roles, erupting into passionate anger, frustration and longing in Sledgehammer’s most multicultural, socially sensitive work yet. Julia D’Orazio delivers a mesmerizing Joan of Arc. Dana Hooley and Martin J. Namaro seem locked in a primal battle in the piece about St. Barbara. Hooley, in particular, skitters on the edge of madness as the young girl abused by her father. Sledgehammer veterans Susan Gelman and Bruce McKenzie are strong in their variety of parts as saints and supporting players.

Vince Mountain’s set is creative, colorful and functional in its extensions of Sledgehammer’s playing area. Mountain is also good with details, such as the red teardrop papers that drop at a crucial moment like rose petals or blood. The long-blacked-out stained glass that was originally on the backstage wall at Saint Cecilia’s has also been beautifully restored.

The simple costumes by Janis Benning and Katherine Ferwerda are just right--lots of diaphanous white for these saints--with a white corset with a painting of encircling thorns for St. Rose. Pierre Clavel’s lighting catches the smoky distances between the past and the present. Christian Hertzog’s instrumental compositions, which are heard throughout the production provide a beat that does not allow complacency.

Sledgehammer Theatre is not a company for those who want to sit back and be entertained. This is a young and exuberant theater of excess, and this show requires much head-craning to catch all the good stuff. Although even those in tune with Sledgehammer might question the company’s decision to do seven plays in one evening, and, indeed, one leaves the theater exhausted, “The Saint Plays” nevertheless provides an evening of exhilaration.

“THE SAINT PLAYS”

By Erik Ehn. Director is Scott Feldsher. Sets by Vince Mountain. Lighting by Pierre Clavel. Sound design and composition by Christian Hertzog. Songs by Christian Hertzog/Erik Ehn and Bruce McKenzie/Erik Ehn. Choreography by Christi Sibul, Al Germani and Scott Feldsher. Costumes by Janis Benning and Katherine Ferwerda. Media by Dave Cannon and Ethan Feerst. Stage manager is Beth Robertson. Performances are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through Oct. 11. Tickets are $10-$15 with 20% off for students and seniors. At Saint Cecilia’s, 1620 6th Ave., San Diego, 544-1484.