In ‘Everyman,’ Video Adds and Distracts

A large television on a pedestal dominates the bare black stage for “Everyman 2000.” A homage to Hollywood or a multimedia production gone video-crazy? Birdman Productions’ uneven update of the 1495 morality play at Third Stage uses and overuses James Henriksen’s well-edited video sequences. The onstage buffoonery and sexual innuendoes are funny, but they somewhat obscure the message.

Using the original script, but a new setting--Los Angeles--director Jenifer Parker tries to make one man’s demise fashionable and funny. Death--a solemn woman dressed in black (Sarah Kate Anderson)--stalks Everyman (Philip Wofford) and runs him down in a red sports car via video. God is portrayed by the whole company in voice-overs to video clips of dramatic rolling clouds.

In search of companionship on his journey, Everyman finds Fellowship (Henriksen) and Kindred (Taylor Sutherland) salivating at a strip bar (nudity via video). They desert him, but Everyman finds others to accompany him.

Good Deeds (Stephanie Dees) is made well by Everyman’s penance. Afterward, Knowledge (Jezlin Royer-Harris) must restrain Good Deeds’ lustful attraction to the willing Everyman. Discretion (Sutherland) has homosexual longings for Strength (Nicolas Aguayo Jr.). Five Wits (Henriksen) is a paunchy, tobacco-chewing Dodger. The reasons for these choices are unclear, and they don’t do much to enhance the story line.

Video adds dimension and expands the limits of the stage, yet as with the onstage action, the tone isn’t consistent. A road-trip video sequence is cutesy and followed by a perky but unnecessarily long music video set in a cemetery. All this sharply contrasts with the mood of other, more somber video sequences.

Every man must die, but not everyone will find this production a journey worth taking.

* “Everyman 2000,” Third Stage, 2811 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 28. $15. (818) 842-4755. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.