Chaotic ‘Riga’ Stresses Identity in Relationship

Marshall W. Mason’s crisp direction of “Riga,” at [Inside] the Ford, helps William M. Hoffman’s absorbing, multimedia “revenge fantasy” dance playfully along the fine “line between performance art and terrorism” (in the words of one of the characters), as it chronicles a failed gay, interracial relationship.

Hoffman’s alter ego, Wolf (Joel Polis), tells us from the start, “this is a message play.” It’s also an attempt at reconciliation with Wolf’s onetime African American lover, the so-called “Z” (Rif Hutton).

Z and Wolf are a toxic couple; their arguments are filled with vile racist accusations. Z rejects his blackness and his family ties to Watts, while Wolf feverishly embraces his own history and his responsibility to his relatives who died in Latvia during the Holocaust. Or at least, that’s Wolf’s version of their story.

Polis’ Wolf is annoying in his obsessive lust and petty jealousies. Hutton’s Z is stiff and restrained, but more conventionally sane.

The play basically follows the chronology of the relationship breakdown, yet Hoffman takes sudden detours into farce, musical interludes, a courtroom drama and fantasy when the sadness, anger or horror threaten to become unbearable.

Mason keeps Hoffman’s sometimes self-serving intentions in check and orchestrates this chaotic array of genres into a symphony of feeling that overwhelms linear logic.

*

* “Riga,” Venture West Theatre Co. at (Inside) the Ford, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre Complex, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., Hollywood. (323) 660-TKTS. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Feb. 27. $20. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.