Lost and Still Not Found : David Rabe’s tale of ‘70s confusion and personal quests is still valid, say director and stars of ‘In the Boom Boom Room.’

David Rabe is one of those playwrights whose early-1970s sensibility, along with a lot of ‘70s anger, places him as a distinctive chronicler of that era, when love and war divided a country and left many young citizens confused.

Some of those confusions are the meat and bones of Rabe’s “In the Boom Boom Room,” opening this weekend at the Ventura Court Theatre. Chrissy, the central figure, wants to be famous as something, probably a dancer. But she’s only gotten as far as the rundown Philadelphia go-go joint of the title.

Are Chrissy’s problems and those of her out-of-kilter associates still pertinent 20 years later?

The production’s director, Richard Kantor, thinks so.

Kantor, concentrating on directing after an active acting career that he says ran the gamut from John Sayles to Aaron Spelling, grew up in the ‘70s.

“That was my era,” he says. “And growing up, we all said, ‘This is the worst year ever.’ It was pretty dreadful. I went to a Quaker school. It was all hippies and I was really in the thick of it. Reading the play, I thought it was really a ‘70s play. What hit me strongest was that all its issues are taking place right now--abuse, child abuse, issues of sexuality, issues of people finding themselves, finding the truth in their lives, and denial.”

Rabe’s hard-hitting drama is certainly pre-women’s lib, pre-gay lib, pre-AIDS, and before, Kantor says, “everyone was liberated. But even now they’re not liberated. That hit me like a ton of bricks. People are just trying to get their lives together now, fighting the same issues. Finding themselves.”

Erin Chandler, who plays Chrissy, finds her character’s history of abuse still an overpowering issue today.

“Everybody’s walking around with all this pain,” Chandler says, “and they don’t know what to do with it, walking around like all these painful characters in the play, all bundled up. Chrissy’s searching because there’s something sick inside. She doesn’t know why she’s so hollow.”

Kantor thinks that people today, just like people in the ‘70s, are searching in the wrong areas. He explains that he knows many people who are trying to fill up their lives with the wrong things and the wrong people. The only difference today is that people go to therapy, which in that era was still a sort of shameful thing.

“Today,” Kantor says, “going to therapy is a badge of honor. But people are still searching in the wrong direction.”

Part of Rabe’s point in the play is that most people need help. Chrissy’s father is among them. He is played by Broadway veteran Ken Kercheval, probably best known for his long run on TV’s “Dallas.” Kercheval calls the character “a great guy,” even considering the man’s faults.

“He’s just come to a point in his life,” Kercheval says, “when, regretfully for him, the lies he’s told himself all his life don’t hold anymore. He might admit it for a moment, but he can’t live it, take that admission into his life. He has to live who he always was, poor s.o.b.--literally.”

One of Chrissy’s two boyfriends is played by James Patrick Stuart, who describes his character as a broken bone that was set very poorly. Stuart will be familiar to viewers of “All My Children,” and is currently seen on UPN’s “Pig Sty.” He’s the son of singer Chad Stuart of the popular ‘60s duo Chad and Jeremy.

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Stuart feels that his character is typical of the ‘70s and that the emotional fallout is still evident.

Stuart says: “In the ‘60s there was such a destruction of heritage and social structure, trying to reinvent for the better, but there were an awful lot of people who fell by the wayside, who couldn’t find themselves. That’s probably an argument that Generation X has. ‘What are we supposed to do now? Thanks a lot. God is dead. And now we’re supposed to find ourselves. We’re all like dust in the wind.’ ”

Stuart’s character, Eric, has been told by so many people how life should be, and he has been betrayed by them. He’s desperately trying to find what’s missing in his life, why he doesn’t belong. Stuart says, “Eric turns to Chrissy for that, and ends up trotting all over her toes in her own mission to find herself.”

Why do these television actors, among many others, keep returning to the stage? Kantor, as director, says that part of the reason is live theater’s ability to deal more honestly with difficult subjects. “Rabe doesn’t give any answers,” Kantor says. “What we’re aiming for is people on the ride home to be asking themselves all those same questions, because these characters are so three-dimensional.”

Kercheval and Stuart both say they’re drawn to stage work partly because of the rehearsal process.

Stuart says, “You do television and it’s like eating Jack in the Box: You shell out and you do it quick. You do a play and you’ve got two months to find the incredible nuances and reality of it, and the intricacies of the characters. And I like to feel that I might make somebody think.”

Kercheval’s answer to theater’s magnetism is simple. “Because it’s a need.”

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: “In the Boom Boom Room.”

Location: Ventura Court Theatre, 12417 Ventura Court, Studio City.

Hours: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Ends June 24.

Price: $15.

Call: (818) 763-3856.