Many Faces to ‘Nightfalls’

T.H. McCulloh’s review of “Nightfalls in L.A.” (“Problems Make for Long ‘Nightfalls,’ ” May 10) is both inexplicably narrow in focus and gratuitously mean-spirited, just the opposite of the play’s open and generous qualities.

The subject of the play concerns what happens in this large, multicultural city that is Los Angeles and directs our attention, though not exclusively, to its problems of racism, class-ism and sexism, and to its physically and socially fragile environment.

What holds the play together is, it seems, just exactly what McCulloh didn’t like: its fidelity to the tragicomedy of such a diverse city and the really quite excellent performances of its cast of 17 multiracial, multicultural actors playing 41 different parts.

The play is itself a contribution both to an understanding and a pulling together of a very complex urban society that has become increasingly divided over the last X number of years.

Author and director John Ferzacca and his largely oppressed, frightened and recurrently rather bewildered characters should be congratulated for their sometimes chillingly and otherwise hilariously moving contribution to contemporary theater.

CREEL FROMAN

Newport Beach

* MORE LETTERS: F11