Short on Brotherly Love

In Lucy J. Kim’s “Leon and Clark,” an earnestly acted Playwrights’ Arena production atMoving Arts, two brothers brood and brawl.

But the reasons they became estranged and their deceased mother’s exact role in their lives are questions inadequately answered.

Leon (Marcos Padilla) is a troubled man who is first seen reciting the names of famous suicides from a tattered red notebook (Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Willy Loman, Yukio Mishima, etc.). Leon, too, tried to commit suicide recently.

Leon’s brother Emil (Christopher Prizzi) comes to town after he’s informed of his mother’s death by Clark (Radmar Agano Jao), who owns a modest small-town diner. Leon thinks Emil deserted the family--and he considers Clark’s disclosure to be an act of betrayal. But Clark explains to Leon, “Your mom ain’t around to protect you; he’s coming home to take care of you.”

Kim’s script never paints a complete portrait of the mother who somehow stood between the boys and yet, in death, brings them back together. She overprotected her “sensitive” younger son, but his recent suicide attempt seems to justify this.

Don~a Guevara-Hill’s direction elicits an angry energy from these three men as they move through the bicker, bully and bluff of the script.

Yet a sliver of vulnerability is never quite felt, and this reduces the piece to an ongoing argument, poorly explained. Among the mysteries is why the play isn’t named after the two brothers.

BE THERE

“Leon and Clark,” (Playwrights’ Arena at Moving Arts, 1822 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays 5 p.m. Ends next Sunday. $15. (323) 960-7756. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.