‘Rashomon’ Marks Coming of Age for Rude Guerrilla

If the caliber of its productions continues along the lines of its second offering--a revival of Fay and Michael Kanin’s adaptation of the brain-tickling Japanese tale “Rashomon”--Rude Guerrilla Theatre Company might want to think about changing its name.

Neither rude nor subversive, director Patrick Gwaltney’s staging is rather a study in grace, quietly building passions and the human heart’s mysteries.

For those who have followed the development of Orange County’s young theater companies, “Rashomon” marks a true maturation: It represents the melding and refining of talents from Rude Guerrilla, Stages and the former Revolving Door Productions. Far from the ultra-low-budget, happily slapdash stagings of these groups in the past, “Rashomon” is, among other things, a piece of theater on an ideally intimate scale.

The kids are growing up.

For others unfamiliar with the evolution of Orange County theater groups, the show still provides a fascinating comparison to Akira Kurosawa’s lean, chiseled, 1952 film version. Except for one crucial detail, the Kanins’ adaptation hews closely to the film’s story line, which is a small masterpiece of multiple-view narrative.

“Rashomon’s” impact derives from its view that storytelling has power unto itself, that it informs our view of life and human beings. How the story is told, and from whose point of view, can dramatically alter that perspective.

An encounter in a forest clearing between a bandit (Adam Clark) and a samurai warrior (Monte Scott) and his wife (Pamela Pedder) leads to the death of the warrior-husband. The bandit has been arrested and brought to court for murder. The wife and a humble woodcutter (Matt Tully) who witnessed the incident testify. This being ancient Japan, a medium (Jennifer Bishton) conjures up the dead husband’s spirit to report his account.

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The story is told in a double-layered flashback, flash-forward structure, so that the woodcutter, a forlorn Buddhist priest (Kreg Donahoe) and a nosy, cynical wig maker (Robert Dean Nunez) review the previous day’s trial while stuck in the rain under Rashomon Gate. First the bandit’s, then the wife’s, then the husband-via-medium’s stories are recounted, then reenacted in the second flashback layer. The wig maker--and we ourselves--grow more doubtful of the truth of the matter. For “Rashomon’s” very structure confronts us with the fragility of human memory, the dubiousness of stories told and told again.

The woodcutter’s own story is left for last, and it seems the truest to the wig maker’s ears because it is the most absurd and exemplifies human weakness. It is also the play’s and this production’s weakest passage, marred by Pedder’s and Scott’s feeble attempt to be spatting spouses, and capped by a kooky accident that will strike some as an ideal surprise and others as a poor substitute for the more serious action in the Kurosawa film.

Apart from that flaw, this is a quietly impassioned “Rashomon.” Gwaltney and set designer Don Hess have devised a superb use of the Empire Theatre’s space--creating an extreme thrust stage with the theater’s modular seating so that the alternating action between the upstage Rashomon Gate and the downstage courtroom and forest scenes flow seamlessly. The effect, combined with Jim Book’s atmospheric lighting and Brian Newell’s sensitive sound and music montage, is a morality play that unfolds like a dream.

The frequent acting histrionics seen previously at Revolving Door and Stages are virtually gone here, with Stages vet Gwaltney enforcing a fine, ritualized pace, yet punctuating it by some fierce, Hong Kong-inspired combat. In the notably non-Asian cast, ex-Revolving Door’s Bishton furthers her reach here as a fearless actress, while another Stages regular, Donahoe, is a quiet, grieving center of the drama. Clark exudes an animal masculinity that might attract any damsel in the woods, and Nunez injects a level of comic bitterness that turns a simple tale into a complex debate on good and evil.

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* “Rashomon,” Empire Theatre, 200 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 21. $10-$12. (714) 547-4688. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Adam Clarky: Bandit

Matt Tully: Woodcutter

Pamela Pedder: Wife

Monte Scott: Husband

Robert Dean Nunez: Wig Maker

Kreg Donahoe: Priest

Jennifer Bishton: Medium

Johnna Adams: Mother

Aurelio Locsin: Deputy

A Rude Guerrilla Theatre Company production of Fay and Michael Kanin’s play. Directed by Patrick Gwaltney. Set: Don Hess. Lights: Jim Book. Sound: Brian Newell. Costumes: Gwaltney and Michelle Fontenot. Fight choreography: Shaun O’Neal and Gwaltney.