Missteps Give the Derivative ‘Insomnia’ Value Only as Sleep Aid

The range of poor decisions that marks Jorge Albertella’s drama “Insomnia” and director Martin Berkowitz’ production of it at Actors’ Playhouse in Long Beach is sadder than the tragic story Albertella tries to tell.

Against all odds, what looks on paper to be a charged face-off between a torture victim in a South American dictatorship and his torturer ends up being amateurishly routine and ham-fisted.

Some may think there’s a place on the American stage for political drama, and “Insomnia” may keep them awake at night--but for all the wrong reasons.

To be sure, Albertella’s premise already situates his play in a tough spot.

With his much better though flawed play “Death and the Maiden,” Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman dramatized the idea of a political prisoner facing her jailer with the notion that the former victim can easily become the new victimizer.

Albertella barely veers from this construct. Like Dorfman, Albertella fled persecution when Argentina fell into a paroxysm of bloody fascism in the 1970s. Like Dorfman, he’s interested in how one’s past is like a stalker and how the war between the sexes may be no less vicious than the “dirty war” (as it came to be known) of Argentina’s, or Chile’s, military rulers.

But it all depends on what you do with the ideas. In his Los Angeles psychotherapy office, Dr. Ricardo Furmansky (Richard Meese) escapes by listening to recordings of rainstorms, which remind him of what he loved about the old country. Then, in incredibly short order, he’s reminded of what he hated about it: A patient (Howard Ray Patterson) suffering from insomnia comes to him for help, and Ricardo recognizes the man as his former torturer.

Albertella then gets into a dramatic swamp by adding one too many coincidences: At a party, Ricardo’s wife, Jennifer (Michal Levy), introduces her husband to Carlos (Brian Knudson), who turns out to have been Ricardo’s prison mate for three years. It’s hard to gauge what’s more false: Ricardo’s dilemma or actor Meese’s attempts at giving it any emotional life.

“Insomnia” bogs down further in extended, roundabout spats between Ricardo and Jennifer (who warns him against attacking his new patient), and Ricardo and his sleepless client (who inevitably reveals his crimes).

In “Death and the Maiden,” Dorfman forced his heroine to turn torturer herself; here, Ricardo’s “victim” simply caves in in a way that would make Don Knotts look macho.

It robs the drama of having Ricardo face a moral quandary, and Ricardo--who couldn’t forgive his enemies at the play’s start and can’t at the end--remains an unchanged, pointless hero.

Meese doesn’t help, with a forced, awkward performance, while Patterson (who like the rest of the cast has no hint of the right accent) at no moment suggests a hidden capacity for evil. Levy plays the smart, tough Jennifer more coldly, one suspects, than Albertella intends. Only Knudson, with touches of alluring sexuality, hints at the rounder, more complex and human drama “Insomnia” should have been.

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“Insomnia,” Actors’ Playhouse, 1409 E. 4th St., Long Beach. Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 17. $15. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

‘Insomnia’

Richard Meese: Dr. Ricardo Furmansky

Michal Levy: Jennifer

Howard Ray Patterson: Patient

Brian Knudson: Carlos

An L.A. Jewish Theatre production of Jorge Albertella’s play. Directed by Martin Berkowitz. Lights: Scott Buchard. Set: Albertella. Music: Emilio Kauderer.