THEATER REVIEWS : Passion Keeps Cabrillo’s ‘Balance’

Kitty Kelley’s portrait of Nancy Reagan had nothing on Agnes in Edward Albee’s 1966 “A Delicate Balance.”

Kelley’s notorious book on the former First Lady barely matches venom with Albee’s acidic portrayal of the dragon-lady wife who will sacrifice everyone--daughter, sister, best friends--to keep up appearances and fulfill what she believes are her husband’s desires.

While the Cabrillo Playhouse’s respectful production of the play has a dated feel that does not pick up on contemporary parallels, director Matthew Rauchberg’s intelligent direction makes Albee’s writing explode with passion at key moments.

The show, which continues through March 20 at the cozy, 66-seat playhouse, won the Pulitzer Prize not just for Albee’s remarkable talent at showing the destructive power of the well-chosen word (as he also demonstrated in the 1962 “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”); it was honored for its disturbing examination of existential fears and its question of what people can expect of each other.

Agnes (Barbara Hollis) and her husband Tobias (Cole Andersen) are a retired, well-to-do couple. They are frayed from dealing with Agnes’ angry, alcoholic sister, Claire (Chris Culver Vibrans) and the couple’s daughter, Julia (Ardis Faith), who expects to come home and crash between failed marriages.

Just as Agnes and Tobias near their breaking point, their best friends, Harry (Leland Wayne) and Edna (Penny Radcliffe), announce that they suddenly find themselves “terrified” for some unknown reason in their own house, and have decided to move in with Agnes and Tobias.

Should Agnes and Tobias let their friends stay forever? Should they throw them out? At the heart of these questions is the issue of what rights people have with each other and what fears people can face alone.

Hollis and Andersen anchor the show with subtle, well-rounded performances. Hollis’ Agnes is a model of cool control--one can feel her using beautifully enunciated words to control the various players in her little world.

Andersen’s Tobias is deceptively slow and sluggish in the beginning; but as his character “awakes” through the course of the play, he pumps the story with a power that makes a long buildup worth waiting for.

As Julia, Faith smolders. She is such a potent force, one wishes Albee wrote more than one note for the eternally whining thirtysomething daughter who wants to be 15 again. Vibrans provides black-comedy relief as the intense, bitter, but funny Claire. Unfortunately, in the pivotal roles of the terror-fleeing Harry and Edna, Wayne and Radcliffe provide little more than wooden portraits.

The technical support is fairly primitive and not up to portraying the lives of the wealthy, privileged set. Guy D’Esperance’s set gives the suggestion of shabby respectability--but not much more. With some exceptions, the same goes for Diane Green’s costumes--respectable, but not elegant.

Despite the show’s imperfections, “A Delicate Balance” succeeds on the most basic level. Twenty-seven years after the show’s controversial debut, it proves that Albee’s questions are disturbingly alive and kicking.

‘A Delicate Balance’

A Cabrillo Playhouse production of Edward Albee’s play. Director: Matthew Rauchberg. With Barbara Hollis, Cole Andersen, Chris Culver Vibrans, Penny Radcliffe, Leland Wayne, and Ardis Faith. Sets: Guy D’Esperance. Costumes: Diane Green. Lights and sound: Ed Howie. Performances Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sunday matinee March 14 only 2 p.m. at the Cabrillo Playhouse, 202 Avenida Cabrillo, San Clemente. Ends March 20. $10. (714) 492-0465. Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes.