THEATER REVIEW : Smoldering Racial Tension in ‘Distant Fires’

The title of Kevin Heelan’s “Distant Fires,” at the Coast Playhouse, refers to race riots that are erupting several miles from where the story is set. Such events don’t seem as distant now as they did in 1988, when this quietly blistering drama received its first local production at International City Theatre in Long Beach.

Still, the play isn’t about riots. It’s about what causes riots. And it’s not set among the jobless in some dilapidated neighborhood. It’s set atop an in-progress high-rise, somewhere on the Maryland shore.

Three African-Americans and two whites are laying cement. Among the former is Thomas (Mykelti Williamson), the crew’s temporary chief, a conscientious worker who’s hoping to get a union bricklaying job. Trying out for the same job is Beauty, one of the white guys (D.B. Sweeney).

The men also are trying to dodge a potentially hazardous assignment that yesterday sent an older, African-American worker to the hospital. It looks as if the task will go to the crew’s slacker, the embittered Foos (Samuel L. Jackson).

Foos is already seething over an incident near his home last night, when police mistook him for a firebrand who’s stirring up the riots. He wasn’t beaten--this isn’t Rodney G. King redux--but he feels he was robbed of his dignity. He’s on the lookout for any sign of further injustice--if his drinking doesn’t cloud his vision too much.

Rounding out the crew are two observers, black and white. The garrulous Raymond (Ellis E. Williams) has decided not to fret about his second-class status. The white teen-ager (Matt McGrath), whose father got him this summer job, is resented by the less privileged white worker, Beauty. Class as well as race divides these men.

Heelan could have mixed all this tension into one big explosion--which might have gone over the top. Instead, he points out the drama in what’s left unsaid, as well as in what’s spoken. He keeps the surface of the play meticulously realistic, for the most part, so it would be hard to dismiss what happens as unlikely. Without being crude about it, Heelan brings his issues home.

Director Clark Gregg’s cast--including some actors better known for recent film roles--responds with carefully modulated performances. Sweeney’s Beauty speaks haltingly, as if he’s doing his dim best not to throw any verbal grenades. Jackson’s face is angrier than his voice. Williamson keeps his cool, but at the end we glimpse his inner firestorm. Richard Riehle’s supervisor stays stone-faced--too much so, perhaps, at his final moment of truth.

Set designer Kevin Rigdon didn’t have as much space as the designer in Long Beach did, but his construction site looks like a fragment of the real thing. Yes, they really pour the cement.

* “Distant Fires,” Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Wednesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Nov. 29. $20-$25. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.