THEATER REVIEW : Grasping Too Late at Life in ‘Waltz’

Two years before playwright Paula Vogel’s brother died of complications from AIDS, she passed up an opportunity to visit Europe with him during his last season of good health. “The Baltimore Waltz” is framed in a fantasy of what that trip might have been, but truly the play explores the darker terrains of love and loss with the kind of whirlwind giddiness that usually comes with touring 10 cities in eight fun-filled days.

When there is little time, one tries desperately to pack it all in.

There is a hallucinatory sensibility to Vogel’s play, which fairly pants with the effort to fully understand and appreciate the dying beloved before it’s too late. But the Drama at UCI Stage Two production--the play’s Orange County premiere--is crisp and neat and altogether too clear-headed to abandon decorum and break into a full run.

Director Annie Loui and her likable cast keep the itinerary clear. As far as the European tour goes, we always know where we are. However, brother Carl’s hospital room--in which the play actually takes place--is harder to distinguish, since it is only hinted at through the stark setting and various set and costume elements (though it is clear in the program notes). Consequently, the production is interesting and amusing but barely touches on the profound grieving in Vogel’s imaginative emotional journey.

The play--in which sister Anna is afflicted with an incurable plague called ATD (Acquired Toilet Disease), an imaginative metaphor for AIDS--takes us from the terror of doctors’ jargon into foreign language lessons, from institutional corridors to bistros.

These elements are rendered with stylish lightheartedness by director Loui and her cast of Marika Becz, Damon Kupper and David Nevell. The ambitious set design by Douglas-Scott Goheen adds visual variety with its stacked and layered panels of curtain-like accordion-style blinds, although the blinds are awkward in execution.

*

Final performances of “The Baltimore Waltz” are today at 2 and 8 p.m. at the Concert Hall on the UC Irvine campus, Bridge and Mesa streets, Irvine. $7 to $9. (714) 824-2787 or (714) 824-5000. Running time: 90 minutes without intermission. Marika Becz: Anna

Damon Kupper: Carl

David Nevell: The Third Man/Doctor

A Drama at UCI Stage Two production. Written by Paula Vogel. Directed by Annie Loui. Setting: Douglas-Scott Goheen. Lights: David Klevens. Costumes: Linda Davisson. Composer: Alan Terricciano. Dialect coach: Dudley Knight. Stage manager: Laurie Ann Kincman.