THEATER REVIEW : ‘Hope’ Does Too Little With Too Much

The 1991 recession has hit the New England town of Hanley hard.

The town is down to one mill. Striking workers are losing jobs to scab labor. Local businesses suffer. Money is scarce, hope even more so.

That’s the setting of Douglas Michilinda’s “Burning Hope,” in its world premiere at the Old Globe Theatre’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage. The play, which opened Wednesday and continues through Aug. 15, centers on the love/hate relationship between Padraig Henry O’Donney (James Greene) and his son Chaser O’Donney (Dave Florek), who run the local pub.

Michilinda, a Massachusetts-based playwright, actor and journalist, knows his subject well--too well at times to focus fully on either the father/son or the recession story.

At its best, “Burning Hope” is a moving tale of the struggle by ordinary Americans for personal and economic independence--with the spotlight on Chaser’s frustrations with his domineering father and the no-win economy.

At its worst, it is an overstuffed suitcase of stories that loses focus as it tells everyone’s tale of economic blues. With a nod to Studs Terkel’s “Working,” this could be subtitled “Not Working”--as tales unfold of a Cambodian refugee in search of a restaurant to open, a Persian Gulf war hero who comes home to lose his job on the picket line and a teen-ager who leaves school to become a rap artist.

But the greatest flaw is Chaser himself, who does not develop during the play. We are told by a visiting businessman that Chaser is admired in town, but all we see is a monotone of bitterness--a man who can no more take responsibility for his business failures--blaming them all on his father--than for his personal life--abandoning the woman bearing his child.

The title, “Burning Hope,” refers to Chaser’s hope that arson will prove the answer to his troubles. It’s a doomed wish, reminiscent of Willy Loman’s plan to kill himself so his boys could inherit his insurance money in “Death of a Salesman.”

But while Arthur Miller proved that “attention must be paid” to Willy, neither Florek--a smoldering actor--nor director Andrew Traister are able to find any graces in Michilinda’s Chaser. Ironically, Kent Dorsey’s poignant set, particularly the patch of straggling grass in a weed-choked yard in front of the pub, is more suggestive of Chaser’s pained soul than the writing.

Traister’s direction flows more surely with Padraig, stylishly performed by Greene, and the war vet, played with an aching sense of betrayal by Wren T. Brown. And as the tough Cambodian refugee who will not give up her dreams even after losing husband, sons and homeland, Kim Miyori puts all the complaining locals to shame.

“Burning Hope,” Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Balboa Park, San Diego. Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday matinees, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 15. $23.50-$32. (619)239-2255. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

James Greene: Padraig Henry O’Donney

Dave Florek: Chaser O’Donney

Wren T. Brown: Micky Gates

Rosina Widdowson-Reynolds: Lucia Scibelli

Kim Miyori: Sisopha Van Ngoc

Jennifer Stratman: Danielle Scibelli

Dan Gunther: Larry Clark

An Old Globe Theatre production. By Douglas Michilinda. Directed by Andrew Traister. Costumes: Andrew V. Yelusich. Lights: Ashley York Kennedy. Sound: Jeff Ladman. Stage manager: Jerome J. Sheehan.