THEATER REVIEW : Wartime Journey Echoes Through Family’s Saga

Thousands of Jews in Germany and Austria sent their children to safety in England on the eve of World War II. British playwright Diane Samuels examines one girl’s journey and its three-generation aftermath in “Kindertransport,” at the Tiffany Theater.

On paper, the play looks as if it could be an emotional blockbuster akin to another play about that era’s refugees, “A Shayna Maidel”--which the same director, Deborah LaVine, directed at the same theater in 1990.

“Kindertransport” doesn’t quite measure up, though. It’s a fascinating introduction to the historical event, but it has a nagging tendency to shift back and forth in time and place every few minutes or even more often. All of this supposedly artful activity dilutes the dramatic effect.

In scenes set in 1938-39, we see 9-year-old Eva (Kala Savage) dispatched by her mother (Jane Kaczmarek) on the journey to England. Once there, she’s given a home by Lil (Elizabeth Hoffman), who is kind, even though she can’t comprehend why the Jewish girl declines to eat ham. At first Lil and her new charge try to arrange for Eva’s parents to be allowed into England, but the war eliminates that possibility. When Eva realizes she probably won’t see her parents again, she embraces England.

Interrupting the flow of these scenes are others in a modern-day London attic, site of another mother-daughter parting. Here, almost-grown Faith (Jennifer Crystal) is considering moving into her own flat, while her mother, Evelyn (Holland Taylor), stays curiously aloof. Also on hand is Evelyn’s mother, who turns out to be the kindly Lil from the previously mentioned scenes. Can you guess Evelyn’s true identity? Faith soon does--and she’s angry that no one ever told her.

Looking at the effect of Eva’s journey through succeeding generations poses interesting questions, but Samuels doesn’t ask them gracefully. Faith’s anger at her mother is ridiculously overstated, and the relentless leaps across time lead to a few moments of confusion.

Meanwhile, other questions go unanswered--for example, where are Eva’s father and, later, her husband? The material may be just too big for a standard-length, one-set play--though designers Edward E. Haynes Jr. (set) and Ken Booth (lights) try hard to make their one attic serve many scenes.

The central performances are strong. Taylor is the epitome of restraint until Evelyn finally breaks down. Savage grows before our eyes from child to young woman, though there isn’t much resemblance between her and Taylor. Kaczmarek sharply contrasts her character’s prewar and postwar visages, but Hoffman’s Lil crosses too many years to be convincing at all times. John Prosky plays several marginal men well, but Crystal is stuck in a badly written role.

* “Kindertransport,” Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Indefinitely. $25-$28. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.