Fountain Conjures Up a Magical ‘Duet’

Legendary cellist Jacqueline du Pre, who was stricken by multiple sclerosis as a young woman at the height of her musical powers, inspired Tom Kempinski’s 1980 drama “Duet for One,” now being staged as the first production in the Fountain Theatre’s intimate new second stage. Despite the perilous proximity of the front-row audience’s knees to the stage, it’s a cozy and congenial space.

Kempinski used Du Pre’s life as a jumping-off point for his own completely fictionalized version, in which a world-famous violinist, Stephanie Abrahams (Jacqueline Schultz), who has recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, undergoes intensive counseling sessions with psychiatrist Dr. Alfred Feldmann (Kenneth Danziger) in hopes of coming to terms with her ravaging disease.

Kempinski’s two-character play, which shows Stephanie’s various stages of denial, rage, grief and despair, is the kind of disease-oriented story often found in television movies. Onstage, the plot has a certain textbook inevitability that could have been dull indeed in the hands of a less gifted production team. However, Stephen Sachs’ elegantly restrained staging and Scott Tuomey’s handsome set show off the gifted Schultz and Danziger to maximum advantage. These actors perform wonders with their limited material, pulling figurative rabbits out of hats--and tears from our eyes--with the unerring aplomb of close-up magicians.

* “Duet for One,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $12.50. (213) 663-1525. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.