‘The Dressing Room’ Cloaks Its Meaning in Reality’s Gray Areas

There are some things that are indelibly lost when crossing linguistic and cultural divides. John K. Gillespie’s translation of a Japanese play by Shimizu Kunio, “The Dressing Room,” cannot overcome all the obstacles, and this well-staged and intriguing Actors’ Gang production doesn’t make the setting comprehensible.

Seemingly set in a theatrical dressing room somewhere in America, the play focuses on three women who inhabit the gray zone between illusion and reality. One (Cynthia Ettinger) plays an actress in a Chekhov play. The other two (Patti Tippo and Kate Mulligan) mourn lost opportunities in the theater. Although they admit that their major role was as an “eternal prompter,” they endlessly apply makeup and play scenes they have memorized and performed without the benefit of an audience. In time, a fourth woman (Tordy Clark) joins them, puzzled at the twosome’s odd customs.

Director Brent Hinkley has constructed an interesting set of relationships but fails to support the play in a suitable context. When Tippo’s character sadly acknowledges the scars on her face, reminders of an air bombing raid, it doesn’t resonate as it might if set in England or Japan.

Likewise, very little has changed in the speeches of “Macbeth” or recent translations of Chekhov to render Mulligan’s comments about the generation changes of language meaningful--or, at least, as meaningful as in the original Japanese text.

* “The Dressing Room,” Actors’ Gang El Centro Space. 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 17. $10. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.