Crisis in This Balkan Play Is in Its Writing

Considering the current conditions in the Balkans, one wants to like Jovanka Bach’s new drama, “A Thousand Souls,” at the Odyssey Theatre. Yet after enduring nearly three hours of numerous blackouts between the endless scene changes and meandering plot lines, one loses that desire.

Set in 1991, an American banker, Misho (Christopher Franciosa), spirits away his mother’s body to bury her in the ancestral cemetery in the old country, as he had promised. His Serbian father, Velko (John DiFusco), follows his American-born son to a Bosnian border town, and they predictably learn more about themselves.

Do not expect any enlightening discourse about the sociopolitical troubles there. The area’s history is boiled down to small-town pettiness with odd instances of folksy friendliness. The main plot points are signaled, highlighted and reiterated, as if the audience were as dim as the characters on stage.

Although a casket and two gravestones appear, death remains abstract, with skeletons falling out of the closet instead of into a grave. Director John Stark prolongs the agony by ending each scene with a blackout transition (although the lights do go up for minor prop changes).

Bach uses her characters with little regard for continuity, something that Stark hasn’t remedied. Misho’s hot-headed cousin, Chicha (Loren Davidson), must change from a hopeless, drunken lout to a take-charge soldier without any soul-searching realization.

There are a few touching moments between DiFusco and Edith Fields, who plays his deceased wife’s cousin. Davidson has a certain attractive air in his swagger.

* “A Thousand Souls,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 2. $17.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.