‘Passion’ Takes Piercing Look at Family Ties

Illuminating the intimate confines of the Two Roads Theatre, Roy Christopher and Francine Russell give well-rounded, powerful performances in David H. Vowell’s trio of short plays, “Acts of Passion.” These plays aren’t about romantic love, but “the consequences of being loved” and the grueling, pervasive emotional ties between parents and adult children.

In “The Inheritance,” a sour-faced, miserly widower (Christopher) mentally rules his family from a chair, grousing about life as his banker daughter (Russell) patiently listens. He’s alienated her French husband, his other two children and every caretaker she hires for him. His grasping selfishness is an invasive legacy more far-reaching than his money.

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Lauren Crasco’s simple black set opens up into a cheery middle-class kitchen for “Planting Roses.” Christopher becomes an easygoing widower gently urging his daughter (Russell), a closeted lesbian, to leave the nest and search for love.

In “Kiss the Moon,” the stage reverts to bare blackness. Christopher plays a dutiful son pensively remembering his mother, a flirtatious, earthy woman played with delicious no-nonsense Southern sensibilities by Russell. Her lusty behavior weighed heavily on her favorite son.

Director Norman Cohen sensitively orchestrates the emotional flow. Russell and Christopher enact convincing, three-dimensional characters, who ask for our sympathies and divide our loyalties.

Vowell doesn’t provide homey warmth and tidy closures, but rather the heated fires of family ties that burn long after death.

BE THERE

“Acts of Passion,” Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends May 6. $15. (818) 762-7488. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.