‘Homage’ a Tribute to Medoff’s Talent

Mark Medoff’s drama “The Homage That Follows” may be burdened with an opaque title, but tribute must be paid to his most illuminating work since 1980’s “Children of a Lesser God.” At its rigorously staged West Coast premiere at Theatre 40, “The Homage That Follows” resembles an invaluable seminar on the media and violence. Never pompous or didactic, it eloquently dramatizes questions of responsibility, guilt and pathology.

“Homage” is no whodunit. Medoff doesn’t waste stage time setting up melodramatic mystery. The gathered ensemble quickly reveal the facts of the case. But the complex moral issues are translated into challenging story theater, like a cubist portrait of grief. Incidents from the past are offered by characters seemingly trapped in Purgatory. Director Flora Plumb gracefully negotiates the complex text, employing spare choreography to piece together the numerous fragments. Her work is complemented by a superbly disciplined company of actors.

Archie (Michael Gough), a physicist tormented by incipient psychosis, is in jail for murdering a New Mexico ranch-owner’s daughter who is also a sitcom star. He did it, admits public defender Joseph Smith (William Frankfather), but who’s really to blame? “We have needs,” he mutters, “to which we can’t give names.”

But then Lucy (Anita Barone) should have known you can’t go home again--even during her show’s hiatus. Yet Lucy is an adult only in the tabloids. Chronically depressed, desperate to withdraw from alcohol and fame, Lucy jokes that she’s “auditioning for the role of the estranged daughter.”

But Lucy’s mother (Elizabeth Meads) is also in crisis. Katherine has lost faith in teaching, and retreated to a solitary existence on her ranch. She has no answers, only questions, and angrily resents her daughter’s attempts at reconciliation.

Her ranch-hand Archie is yet another fugitive from city life. But as Medoff’s characters reluctantly discover, there’s no escape from self . . . or the pervasive media influence. Archie can’t resist writing an original sci-fi screenplay for Lucy, any more than Katherine can avoid falling for his sinister charms. When Lucy tries to avoid responsibility for the impact of her image, even the local sheriff (Richard Miro) loses perspective. All become collaborators in celebrity murder.

Victimizer becomes victim. And so another mourning parent stands alone under a galaxy of stars and pleads--not for justice--but for ethics. Blame it on particle physics? Accidental equations? Chance collisions? Where’s meaning in the universe if we don’t impose it?

Homage must be paid, this grieving mother cries to the stars, and Medoff answers her prayers. And ours.

* “The Homage That Follows,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 24. $14-$17. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.