‘Twilight’: The Voices From Offstage : The Play Brings Hope for Some, Pain for Others but Most Agree It Hits a Nerve

It’s a one-woman show, but one could say it has a cast of thousands. In “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” at the Mark Taper Forum, Anna Deveare Smith portrays 27 real-life individuals whose lives were dramatically altered by the Los Angeles riots. Some of their names have become part of a contemporary legend: former police chief Daryl F. Gates; Reginald O. Denny, pulled from his truck and beaten at the intersection of Florence and Normandie; Angela King, aunt of Rodney G. King and frequent spokeswoman for her nephew. Others are less well-known: Elvira Evers, a pregnant woman who was shot and miraculously survived because her unborn baby’s elbow caught the bullet (the baby is fine too); Josie Morales, an uncalled witness in the King beating trial; and Young-Soon Han, a former liquor store owner trying to swallow her bitterness over the riot’s effect on Korean-Americans.

Yet, in a sense, not only the people portrayed on stage, but each member of the audience feels a part of the play, which is composed of verbatim excerpts from interviews. It’s Los Angeles, 1992, being presented to Los Angeles, 1993--the city that lived the story. As “Twilight” nears the end of its run (it closes Sunday), local residents who have seen the play--both those who were portrayed onstage and those who were not--agree that the show strikes a common nerve. Some see the play as a symbol of hope, believing its multiple points of view will help bring a fractured Los Angeles together. Others felt only pain and hopelessness at being reminded just how easily this city can fall apart.

Ironically, Rodney G. King has not seen the play (nor was Smith able to interview him). Angela King reports that her nephew has been busy studying for a high school equivalency exam--a difficult task as he still suffers from dizzy spells. Gates, now a KFI radio talk-show host, also has not seen the play, but his spokesman said the former chief would like to because he has heard that Smith’s portrayal of him is less negative than anticipated.

Denny has seen the play; his June 20 viewing of “Twilight” with his ex-wife and daughter was both his first visit to downtown’s Music Center and his first experience seeing live theater. Smith’s performance, Denny said, “was so much like me, it was unnerving . . . it took me 30-some years to develop those mannerisms, and she learned them in a few months.”

Denny was amused by the show’s insolent humor and chilled by what he felt were dispassionate words from Sgt. Charles Duke, a police officer depicted in the play coolly describing the use of batons during King’s beating. But much as he enjoyed “Twilight,” Denny believes its power to change minds is limited.

“As far as changing the consciousness of L.A., I think the happenings on April 29, (1992), and the next few days--for the folks who were willing to see it--that’s all it took,” Denny mused. “It’s not going to take a show, or a mayor, or a police chief, or a movie star trying to convince somebody. It comes from a person’s soul.

“What it did for me, and for (my ex-wife), I know, was it let us see the part of the picture that we weren’t aware of,” Denny continued. “(The riot) wasn’t just about one person, and it definitely wasn’t about me . It was all different kinds of people, brought together by one strange set of circumstances . . . that was just a wake-up call.”

“Maria,” a 29-year-old Orange County woman who served as a juror in King’s civil rights trial and was portrayed in “Twilight,” has found herself thrown into a strange set of circumstances. Before the play opened, she planned to pen a book about her involvement in the trial. But Hollywood is now after her story for a feature film or TV movie. She said producers see this jury’s experience as a 1993 version of the 1957 film “12 Angry Men.”

*

Maria has also found herself uninvited to a jurors’ reunion, which is planned for later this summer. In the play, Smith-as-Maria gives a hilarious description of the juror who came down with hives during deliberations, ripping off his shirt to show his colleagues how he was suffering under stress. The reunion, she said, is supposed to take place at that juror’s house.

Rodney G. King’s great-aunt, Loretta Handley, 67, who attended a performance with Angela King, paraphrased the statement made famous by her great-nephew. “I think this play should be seen by everybody, I think it will help to ease the tension . . . there is no excuse for us not to all get along,” she said.

Marcia Choo, president of the Women’s Organization Reaching Koreans (WORK), said that while she thought the play left out the voices of young Korean-American activists in favor of portraying first-generation Korean immigrants, she also respected Smith for allowing those voices to be heard--even convincingly speaking Korean when portraying Chung Lee, president of the Korean American Victims Association.

“During the 72 hours I was glued to the (TV) set (during the riots), I heard not one single Asian-American voice,” Choo reminisced. “I felt profoundly sad when I saw the Korean merchants arming themselves with machine guns, the frantic-ness of not getting any police response. I felt like I discovered my place in America, that I didn’t belong.

“At least they were given a voice through Anna’s play; most people don’t want to go to the trouble of finding an interpreter for them. I’m glad they found a voice.”

*

Not everyone was as happy with “Twilight.” Judith Tur, a reporter with Los Angeles News Service who was portrayed decrying a city out of control and saying “this is not my Los Angeles anymore,” fears that her blunt words might mark her as a racist in the eyes of the audience. “I was embarrassed by myself up on that stage--I was not a bitch,” she said.

“I was the only white woman that she portrayed . . . the black people she portrayed, I can’t really say I didn’t like any of them. And then here I come on (seeming) really mean. They were funny, they were bright, and then here comes this white woman . . . I was the ass of the show . . . I don’t regret it at all, it’s the way I feel, but the tone of voice she used--that’s not the way I said it.”

Lt. Owen Smet of the Culver City Police Department, former range manager at the Beverly Hills Gun Club, was out in the field during the riots. He thought Smith portrayed both him and the riot experience accurately, but added that the rage expressed by some other characters made “my hair stand on end.” “To me, (the play) was a little bit depressing,” Smet said. “It was a sad commentary. We are as far apart as we’ve ever been.”

Smet said Smith’s portrayal of him captured the ambivalence of both street cops and victims of violent crimes who join the gun club seeking a way to protect themselves. “There are so many guns on the street,” he said. “It’s not about whether you support gun control or not--there just are . They are bigger and better, they are better than ours.”

Sgt. Duke, an LAPD use-of-force expert who testified for the defense in the Simi Valley trial, still believes the officers later convicted of violating King’s civil rights are innocent. Smith’s portrayal, he said, was “a fairly accurate depiction of the time I spent with her,” although he added he thought she was “a little hard” on former chief Gates.

He also thought the “baton” speech that horrified Denny might clarify what he believes actually happened between the LAPD and Rodney G. King. “The officers (charged in the beating) responded to that incident the way you would expect an officer would under the circumstances,” Duke said. “It’s brutal, it’s violent and it’s ugly, but that’s what police work is like on occasion . . . Rodney King’s aunt talks about what a kind, gentle person Rodney King is--well, on March 3, 1991, Rodney King was not a kind and gentle person. He jeopardized a lot of people’s lives that night.

“There are always two different sides to a story . . . this is probably the most publicized police case in the history of the United States, and trying to understand it is, I think, the most important thing.”