‘Reflections’ a R.A.W. Look at Feminism at West Coast

Southern novelist Carson McCullers’ “Reflections in a Golden Eye” focuses on an abused Army wife’s emerging independence. At West Coast Ensemble, it is no coincidence that Toni Wilson titles her compelling study of feminism “Reflections in a Black Woman’s Eye.” The South is a mirror of South-Central L.A., she implies, and feminist struggles are color blind. McCullers and Wilson are soul “sistuhs.”

So four women sit on stools, telling stories, repeating poems, singing songs, educating one another and their audience.

“A man is a man no matter what the color,” says one of Wilson’s charismatic actresses. Another agrees but then remembers her man: “His dark eyes bore into my very soul. Oh, he was my lover, my master, my god.” A third laughs, adding: “Hey, my man watches that new Janet Jackson video and says my butt’s too big!”

Suddenly, they portray children, skipping in a circle, singing a nursery rhyme: “Big lips! Fat hips! Wide nose! Nappy hair!”

Just as quickly another mood descends. Now the women are oppressed by memories. “Why are you black women so loud?” one chants to the audience. “Why are you black women so pushy? Peek into my world and tell me what you see. . . .”

Round and round goes the kaleidoscopic world of Wilson’s “Reflections,” and sometimes it stops on a vibrant scene--a spiritual sung by a church choir--and sometimes it stops on a sentimental sequence--a black child’s experience in a white ballet school. We learn about men and women, welfare hell, the fire next time, fathers and mothers. They’re specifically African American, but their lives are universal.

Minimally staged, the mix of monologues, poetry, song and slightly dramatized episodes resembles Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.” What’s missing is the historical urgency and emotional rage that fueled the seminal feminism of Beah Richards’ 1950 classic “A Black Woman Speaks.”

Co-directed by Wilson and Gammy Singer, this brief, fragmented work is far from perfect. But that’s by design, as the production is part of the theater’s provocative development program, R.A.W. (Radical Alternative at West Coast). There’s definitely enough raw material to shape into a satisfying production. The core performers--Sherria Seward, Elizabeth Jean-Paul, Jean Marie Hamilton, Rhonda Walker--coupled with five dynamic gospel singers--Vonna Bowen, Bobbye D. L. Gooden, Sherry D. Green, Nelva Sandefur, Ejaye Tracey--collaborate like a seamless ensemble.

“Throw out the lifeline,” they sing in gospel harmony during a simulated church meeting, “someone is drifting away.” It’s a sermon this city might be wise to attend.

* “Reflections in a Black Woman’s Eye,” West Coast Ensemble, 6240 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Mondays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Ends May 26. $10. (213) 871-1052. Running time: 1 hour.

‘Company Policy’: Rage and Vision

“The first play to deal with Black rage in corporate America” is the written claim made by Michael Ajakwe Jr., about his “Company Policy” at the Hudson Backstage. The subject is “Buppies”--upwardly mobile African Americans in a small Los Angeles insurance firm. Hired because of affirmative action laws, a black woman and a black man are forced to compete during their “probationary period.”

Playwright-director Ajakwe credits David Mamet for “inspiration,” and indeed “Company Policy” could be seen as an African American “Glengarry Glenn Ross,” especially since it includes an office scam involving salesmen’s “leads.”

Ajakwe has a distinctive playwright’s voice and knows this territory. Sometimes the plotting is amateur, sometimes the dialogue disintegrates into diatribe, and often the white characters are caricatures. But there is genuine vision inside his raging rhetoric as well as sobering political lessons, however awkwardly staged. Underneath these office politics simmers an intelligence that understands discrimination on all levels.

Particularly unnerving is the abusive exploitation of a male professional by his female boss. Feminists may not like the reverse sexism, but Ajakwe convincingly demonstrates why laws protecting workers against abuse of power are rarely enforced. “Just like a sister,” angrily responds the insurance salesman to a co-worker who witnessed his treatment. “Quick to criticize and slow to support.”

“Company Policy” is packed with misogyny, stereotypes, polemical speeches and bitterness--just as promised. Despite clumsy dramaturgy, it delivers a scathing, imperfect, disturbing profile of black rage among “successful” African Americans. Ajakwe may not be the first to explore office politics through a black perspective, but he is definitely a playwright to watch.

* “Company Policy,” Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturday matinee, 4 p.m. Ends June 4. $10-$12. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

‘Ars Erotica’ Falls Short at Fountain

Director Stephen Sachs is often brilliant with established classics. This last year witnessed his inspired revival of “The Boys in the Band” and his rigorous treatment of “ ‘night, Mother.” But when Sachs helps develop new material, the result is oddly turgid. Case in point: “Ars Erotica” at the Fountain Theatre.

Playwright Jay Alan Quantrill desperately requires an editor for his tortured exploration of art and pornography. The subject is a 1912 censorship trial of Austrian Expressionist artist Egon Schiele (portrayed hysterically by Walt Goggins as a kind of Germanic Blanche DuBois). The plot Ping-Pongs between a jail cell and a hearing room. Pompous aesthetic debates are choreographed like a ponderous courtroom drama, but what the material requires is an Expressionistic treatment--outrageous self-expression and sexually disturbing confrontations.

Instead, “Ars Erotica” censors itself.

* “Ars Erotica,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 21. $15-$17.50. Running time: 2 hours.

‘Children’: Wanna-Be Cops and Rockers

At the Lost Studio, playwright Matthew Weiss may want “Slow Children” to be a sluggish, infantile farce that lampoons the heavy-metal rock world. Let’s hope so. Among its prestigious East Coast developers are the New York Playwrights Lab.

Slow-witted, wanna-be rocker Rikki (Craig Borten) has handcuffed a policeman (Ben Meyerson) to a bed in his grungy Hollywood pad. We learn the cop was about to arrest Rikki, who instead made a “citizen’s arrest.” The absurd turns preposterous when the cop’s female partner is also captured. She falls in love with Rikki, who realizes that he’s always wanted to be a cop. Since her partner always dreamed of becoming a heavy-metal rocker, everyone lives happily ever after. Change the uniform and exchange identities and you have a ludicrous “Mrs. Doubtfire Goes Grunge.”

Now we know why they’re called metal-heads.

* “Slow Children,” Lost Studio, 130 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends May 15. $12.50. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.