Original Work, Familiar Sin

They say they’ve done it before, but if so, it’s been a long time: The Conejo Players, one of Ventura County’s largest and longest-lived community theater groups, is producing an original play.

Well, it’s not exactly original; Ralph Tropf’s “Shadow Hour” has been produced in several workshop editions and once at a theater in Hollywood. But the playwright says the current version is substantially different from the last.

More to the point, the play--directed by Rick Steinberg with considerable input from the playwright--deals with a controversial subject and is the kind of show more likely to be presented by colleges and small, experimental theaters than one like the Conejo.

With its story of a senator accused of sexually attacking an intern, “Shadow Hour” could hardly be fresher, though Tropf told an audience last week that he started it in 1993 with Sen. Gary Hart in mind and revised it when Sen. Robert Packwood, O.J. Simpson and--most recently--Monica Lewinski were in the headlines. Truth is, the political setting isn’t important: These issues can arise in an academic environment, as in David Mamet’s “Oleanna”; the military; or in any conventional workplace.

The play’s setting alternates between the scene of the event as it is taking place and a courtroom. One of Tropf’s more interesting notions has the same actors playing principals in the maybe-crime and officers of the court: the judge, attorneys and jurors. Often, the same actor plays roles whose views of the event are at odds with one another. Linda Steigler plays the senator’s defense attorney and the judge, for instance.

Tropf and director Steinberg try hard to be fair to both sides. Sen. Adams (Jack Margolis) is no gentleman, but is he guilty of rape, or was the intern (nicely played by Kim Demmary) somehow complicit? And are others involved in the trial allowing their own interests to interfere with justice? But ultimately, the question isn’t so much one of who did what as a matter of degree.

A wide range of personalities is involved, from a boisterous man (Arnold E. Fadden, quite effective) to a sensible little old lady (Connie Ropolo).

Intentionally or not, the two people on the panel who are least fit for a jury are both ditzy women (Deanna I. Milsap; Margot Rifenback), and feminists won’t be thanking the playwright for the way he writes the two characters played by Sandy Richard. As a juror, she struts around the stage as if doing a Robert Blake impersonation; her women’s advocate is no less stereotypical. And neither of them is likely to give a man--any man--a break.

Will Shupe also deserves special mention as a prosecuting attorney.

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DETAILS

“Shadow Hour” continues Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., through July 17 at the Conejo Players Theatre, 351 Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks. Tickets are $9 Thursdays, $11 Fridays and $13 Saturdays. For reservations or further information, call 495-3715.

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Tennessee Triple-Header in Ventura: The new Theatre on Main group is presenting “Three by Tenn,” a compilation of Tennessee Williams one-acts. It’s short--about 105 minutes, including intermissions--and pithy. The three are early, though easily recognizable, examples of the writer’s work, fraught with sweat, alcohol, low social class, despair, lost possibility and the implicit stench of magnolias.

“The Lady of Larkspur Lotion” takes place in a New Orleans boardinghouse, “Hello From Bertha” in a St. Louis brothel and “27 Wagons Full of Cotton” in the heart of Mississippi sharecropper country. All three feature strong roles for women, notably Linda Livingston in “Larkspur,” Tabi Cooper in “Bertha” and--in a performance that’s very close to amazing--Jodi Taffel in the seriocomic “Wagons.”

The supporting performances by Elaine Arnett, Sam Cotrone, Mary Powelson, Seegal Paska, Mario Opinato and, especially, Darryl B. Hovis, are also fine. Jim Hatch directed “Larkspur,” Jack Heller the others.

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DETAILS

“Three by Tenn” continues through July 11 (no show July 4) at the Theatre on Main in the Odd Fellows Temple, 516 E. Main St. in Ventura. Shows are Thursday-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 general, $15 students and seniors, $10 Thursdays; group rates are available. For reservations or information, call 648-1936.

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One-Woman Show in Ojai: Cheryl Hunter is an actress who has volunteered in a home for the aged. Her one-woman show, “Twice the Child,” directed by Robert Brink, enables her to ramble at some length (an hour, really) about herself; it’s an actor’s dream.

When she isn’t talking about her failed love life (some of the show’s best moments), she’s imitating several of her charges, generally by stooping, contorting her face or speaking as with some sort of impediment (one character has had a stroke, one uses a walker, one has Alzheimer’s disease, so it’s not inappropriate).

She’s hard on herself, having taken the job, she says, because with her “ . . . career and love life in the dumper . . . I needed someone to feel superior to.” She’s probably kidding, but that callous attitude toward the oldsters remains rather too long in the show, perhaps.

Hunter is attractive, having modeled extensively; at least moderately talented (the show doesn’t give her much chance to stretch); and most of Friday night’s audience found the production quite amusing. But probably few would argue that this is the highlight of Theater 150’s current program of one-person shows.

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DETAILS

“Twice the Child” concludes Sunday at Theater 150, 918 E. Ojai Ave. in Ojai. Performances are Friday-Sunday at 8 p.m. Admission is $20. For reservations (highly recommended) or information, call 646-4300.

Todd Everett can be reached at teverett@concentric.net.