THEATER REVIEW : ‘Musica’ a Taut Drama of Emotional Ambiguity

Amid the chic neutrality of a hotel lobby, an elegantly dressed man and woman strike distracted poses before approaching each other. Conversation begins--or rather resumes, for we immediately sense the history between them.

The details, however, prove elusive. From banal chitchat about their separate lives, we gradually piece together the outlines of a turbulent marriage, now over. Obsession and violence lie just beneath the surface as they sift through the ashes, finalizing their divorce plans. In time, we even learn their names.

Welcome to the atmospheric world of Marguerite Duras, evoked with striking visual flair in Aresis Ensemble’s U.S. premiere of “La Musica Deuxieme” at the City Garage in Santa Monica. Best known as the author of “The Lover” and “Hiroshima Mon Amour,” Duras brings her signature shadows of emotional ambiguity to the stage in this taut drama, revised in 1991 from her 20-year-old one-act.

Barbara Bray’s haunting translation shows notable sensitivity to a text preoccupied not only with the deep corners of lost souls but the vast spaces between them, and director Frederique Michel gives the work’s unspoken truths room to breathe with his slow, sparse pacing. How could it be otherwise when, as one character puts it, “We should talk because we haven’t anything else to do.”

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It’s a comment born not out of boredom but rather an acknowledgment that the most important matters between them--the things that can’t be put into words--are now beyond their reach.

In characteristic Duras fashion, the external world of jobs, families and politics fades before the private reality between Michel (Clayton Murray) and Anne-Marie (Katherine McKinnis). Self-absorbed and claustrophobic though it may be, that reality is consistently absorbing as we watch the couple flounder in helplessness.

A sophisticated beauty who maintains the emotional upper hand while her former husband struggles with his conflicting impulses, McKinnis’ Anne-Marie also shows the dependence and complicity that helped feed their destructive relations. Although she seems compelled to fill the frequent pauses with pained expressions, her performance would improve by trusting the character’s enigmatic qualities.

Michel’s tortured sophistication is clearly alien territory for Murray, however, who too often comes across like Steven Seagal trying to do Bryan Ferry.

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Visual composition is as important as dialogue in Duras’ nearly frozen landscape, where the few moments of physical contact assume heightened sensuality. Designer Charles Duncombe impressively frames these characters in a lush set splintered into light and shadow by track lighting, with occasional stabs of saturated color (the narrow spot on a vase of roses in full bloom provides a nice touch of understated irony).

Since the delicately built momentum could not sustain a regular intermission, director Michel wisely opted instead for a kind of existential seventh inning stretch in which the characters silently smoke cigarettes on opposite sides of the stage as a jazzy instrumental number blares over the soundtrack--even emotional wastelands need a little dash of humor.

* “La Musica Deuxieme,” City Garage, 1340 1/2 4th St., Santa Monica. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5:30 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $10. (310) 319-9939. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.