Medical Ethics Enliven ‘Heart’

An African American girl has been waiting for months for a heart transplant. A bright and promising student, the only child of her doting, anguished mother, she is currently stable but could deteriorate at any moment. Meanwhile, a beloved but boozy old celebrity who has abused his body for decades must receive an immediate heart transplant or die. When a heart becomes available, to whom does this life-giving organ ultimately go?

Playwright Angelo Parra examines the processes and the politics of organ allocation in “A Heart of Flesh” at the Alliance Repertory Company. In the tradition of “12 Angry Men,” Parra’s play takes place primarily behind the closed doors of the confidential committee--the “jury,” if you will--which must determine which individual lives and which is sentenced to an uncertain fate.

It’s a beat-the-clock drama--that donor heart chilling in the cooler has got to be implanted, pronto--and Parra brings a formidable degree of subtlety and skill to the committee table.

However, despite Robert Mandan’s consistently dynamic staging, Parra’s piece, while timely and informational, is essentially didactic, the kind of exposition-heavy vehicle that would seem more appropriate as a television movie than as an autonomous piece of theater.

And Parra’s characters, although acutely realized by this exceptional cast, seem more the disingenuous exponents of this complicated issue rather than fully fledged, convincingly diverse dramatic entities.

BE THERE

“A Heart of Flesh,” Alliance Repertory Company, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 21. $15. (323) 655-8587. Running time: 2 hours.