Theater Review : An Overlong ‘Penguin’ Takes Flight

Steve Apostolina’s first full-length play, “Flight of the Penguin,” at the Limelight Playhouse in North Hollywood, features a workmanlike plot and considerable promise.

Unfortunately, at its present running time of two hours and 40 minutes, Apostolina’s inaugural effort is too much of a good thing.

Apostolina, who also performs in the play, has committed the cardinal sin of falling too rapturously in love with his own work. Under the tutelage of director Steven Ingrassia, the love fest becomes an orgy.

Ingrassia directs his talented cast to linger so lovingly over every bit of business that the show’s emotional peaks flatten vertiginously into valleys. Still, despite pregnant pauses to shame Pinter, there’s a sweet, rigorously authentic quality to the acting that goes a long way toward ameliorating the evening’s dramatic and directorial faults.

Tony Maggio plays Rudy, a white stock boy at a huge New York bookstore who falls in love with black co-worker Donna (Karen Dyer). Rudy has some unresolved conflicts about Karen’s race because of a traumatic incident in his past.

Maggio is typically a gifted performer, but here he seems to be straining for effect. Apostolina, who plays Rudy’s racist pal Spot, has a nicely offhand manner that counterbalances Maggio’s self-conscious weightiness.

As playwright, however, Apostolina displays no such light hand. Streamlined pacing and ruthless editing could work wonders for this attenuated drama. At present, “The Flight of the Penguin” is a classic example of a play grounded by untrammeled sincerity of intention.

* “The Flight of the Penguin,” Limelight Playhouse, 10634 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Sunday matinees May 15 and 22, 2 p.m. Ends June 12. $15. (818) 753-7726. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.