‘Reunification Hotel’ Tries to Find Unity

Julian Barry attempts to include all the highly marketable angles in his new drama “Reunification Hotel,” at the new Venture West Theater. There is titillating sex, violence and violent sex, and for the intellectuals he includes a fair dose of history that borders on overdose.

French colonialism, French comfort women, American complicity in the trade and transport of Vietnamese sex slaves, Japanese colonialism, American imperialism in the name of fighting communism, French complicity in the Nazi roundup of French Jews, Vietnamese independence and idealism, the current dying of Vietnamese communism as capitalism enters Vietnam--they’re all mentioned but mostly go undeveloped as unifying themes. Yet what really wins one over are the sometimes poignant moments and sensitive acting of the three main characters.

As the play opens, Capitaine Dupar (Norman Parker) is torturing his current sex slave, Le Thi (Freda Foh Shen), as Lt. Henderson (Matt McKenzie) saunters in. By the end of three acts (with two intermissions), each has been tortured and at the mercy of the other. This symbolism thunks down with contrived irony and didactic lines.

As the bewildered right-wing country boy who matures into a disillusioned former Reaganite, McKenzie gives a charming, heartfelt performance. Shen falters as the scheming Vietnamese Mata Hari but is more assured and believable as the minister confronting the POWs or the embittered woman whose “one great love is an ideology.” Unfortunately, Parker lurches between caricature and realism.

This isn’t entirely Parker’s fault; Barry’s direction sometimes veers into farce before again grounding itself in reality. Like the hotel from which this play takes its name, this script could use some refurbishing to refine Barry’s vision.

* “The Reunification Hotel,” Venture West Theatre, West L.A. Veterans Administration, Building 264, West Los Angeles. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends April 27. $15. (310) 364-0369. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.