‘Lebensraum’ Explores Pain of Rapprochement

“Please come home,” implores a German chancellor trying to erase the shame of the Holocaust with an offer of citizenship and jobs for 6 million Jews. If one buys the fanciful premise of Israel Horovitz’s “Lebensraum,” the tragic consequences unfold like clockwork in a powerful staging at the Fountain Theatre.

Sporting stylishly avant staging on a minimal set, Horovitz’s cautionary fable employs a trio of versatile actors (Paul O’Brien, Roy Abramsohn and Nichole Pelerine) in 80 roles to evoke a sweeping tapestry of worldwide events following the chancellor’s initiative.

In view of the audience, the performers don and discard costumes and props, and sound effects supplied by an on-stage technician (Dori Freeman) further the abstract presentational style. Seth Rozin’s assured direction serves the work well with briskly unsentimental pacing and focus on the all-too-believable hostilities that develop on both sides of the ensuing controversy.

*

For all its post-Brechtian austerity and dizzying array of characters, the play really shines in its most traditional elements--intimate relationships traced over time, nurtured with Horovitz’s touching dialogue, and fleshed out with fine performances.

Particularly memorable are the “Romeo and Juliet”-style romance between a transplanted American Jewish teenager (Abramsohn) and a sheltered German (Pelerine) who’s never known a Jew, and O’Brien’s marvelous turns as a dock worker who becomes a political pawn, and as both halves of a bickering pair of concentration camp survivors.

These narrowly focused, beautifully rendered subplots expose the futility of trying to legislate away tragedies like the Holocaust--rapprochement is only possible when both sides are willing to lay their grievances to rest.

BE THERE

“Lebensraum,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (this Sunday and June 11, 3 p.m.) Ends June 25. $18-$22. (323) 663-1525. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.