Today’s Cynicism Grounds Flight of ‘My Three Angels’

For the past several years, the North Coast Repertory Theatre has played clever riffs on Christmas themes for the holiday season, from Alan Ayckbourn’s acid-tipped “Season’s Greetings” to last year’s “Greetings!,” a darkly funny hit about a son who brings his Jewish fiancee home to his devout Catholic parents for Christmas dinner.

Alas, this year’s offering, “My Three Angels,” is not heaven-sent.

Sam and Bella Spewack’s 1955 play about three convicts with hearts of gold has not aged well. It did not work for Robert DeNiro and Sean Penn when they mined it for the film “We’re No Angels.” And it doesn’t work for the North Coast company. Despite valiant attempts to baste this turkey, the bird is just plain inedible.

Maybe 33 years ago in a less violent America, when murders didn’t dominate the news, it was possible to like Jules (John Christopher Guth) and Alfred (John Moore), who have drawn a life sentence in a penal colony in French Guiana for killing a wife and stepfather, respectively.

Maybe 1950s audiences were more willing accept their provocation: Jules’ wife was having an affair, and Alfred’s stepfather objected to the boy’s stealing money from his safe.

And, maybe before taxpayers got handed the bill for the savings and loan disaster, they could be amused by the antics of Joseph (Jim Johnston) drawing a sentence of 20-odd years for cooking the books of various companies. Possibly.

What is supposed to make these three appealing is the Machiavellian use of their black talents for good ends. After meeting the honest but hapless Ducotel family--papa Felix (Larry Corodemas), mama Emilie (Pat DiMeo) and daughter Marie Louise (Cleigh Dellon), the cons dedicate themselves to helping the Ducotels, but without the family’s knowledge.

Felix Ducotel’s honesty, compounded by a high tolerance of credit and sneak thieves, is hastening the failure of his store. Meanwhile, the daughter’s naivete is causing her to make a fool of herself for a man with the depth of a puddle.

A cynic might say this obstinately idiotic family deserves its fate. But not these convicts, whose keepers are conveniently never in sight. No, these nice, upstanding murderers and thieves are the last of the romantics, and so they they take it on themselves to improve the Ducotels’ lot by a series of mysterious deaths punctuated by the duping of customers to abet sales.

Olive Blakistone, the theater’s artistic director, has built her little house with a knack for selecting shows of quality and running them just as the issues they present hit a timely peak. Here, however, she has missed the mark completely and compounds the error by directing the show with a heavy hand, failing to find any surprises behind the stock stereotypes.

The cast on the whole seems self-conscious about this mess, with newcomer Johnston being one of the few to earn some laughs as the convict who sees bookkeeping as an art rather than a science.

Marty Burnett turns in yet another one of his fine, realistic sets that veritably glistens with the sweat of the hot climate it suggests. Unfortunately, it was the only realistic element in this phony feel-gooder.

This is one revival it would have been kinder not to resuscitate.

* “My Three Angels,” North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987D Loma Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Jan. 2. $14-$16. (619) 481-1055. Running time: 2 hours.

Larry Corodemas: Felix Ducotel

Pat DiMeo: Emilie Ducotel

Cleigh Dellon: Marie Louise Ducotel

Sandra Ellis-Troy: Mme. Parole

Jim Johnston: Joseph

John Christopher: Guth Jules

John Moore: Alfred

Robert F. Stark: Uncle Henri

Ed Hofmeister: Paul/Lieutenant

A North Coast Repertory Theatre production. By Sam and Bella Spewack, directed by Olive Blakistone. Sets: Marty Burnett. Costumes: Suzan Bennett. Lights: David C. Jackson. Sound: Marvin Read. Stage manager: Jennifer Tyrer.