Not Letting Others’ Words Define Him

The true Puritan, said essayist and cultural critic Randolph Bourne (1886-1918), “loves virtue not so much for its own sake as for its being an instrument of terror.”

Bourne was no Puritan, though a lesser spirit in his circumstances might have become one. The writer endured what was termed a “messy” birth and grew up stunted, disfigured, often mercilessly taunted.

His radical opposition to World War I was part and parcel of his vision of Anglo-Saxon America, a grand experiment with even grander potential, but too often “guilty of just what every dominant race is guilty of in every European country: the imposition of its own culture upon the minority peoples.”

Bourne’s is a great life story begging for idiosyncratic theatrical treatment. Playwright John Belluso clearly has a lot of talent.

Yet in honoring this outsider’s life, Belluso has shaved off too many edges. “The Body of Bourne,” a world premiere now at the Mark Taper Forum, is a dutiful stage biography, structurally smooth but superficial. It never takes you behind Bourne’s eyes. You want a less conventional, more compelling depiction of this compellingly unconventional man.

Belluso and director Lisa Peterson take their tonal cue from Bourne’s overriding optimism. (The musical score jollies things along, sometimes ironically, sometimes blandly.) In the prologue, Bourne (engaging Clark Middleton) watches his own birth from an adult perspective. “Deformed,” “crippled,” “hunchbacked”: These, he says, are “other names which will be given my body,” along with his birth name. What, he wonders, “will I do with these names?”

The answers arrive by way of a straightforward chronology. We’re introduced to Bourne’s mother, Sara (Jenny O’Hara), who is bringing up Randolph and his ball o’ fire sister, Ruth (Jodi Thelen), in the home of Sara’s brother, Halsey (Nicolas Coster) in New Jersey.

As gruff Halsey foists dancing lessons on the boy, Bourne’s social phobias loom ever larger. He finds a new universe at Columbia University, a lifelong friend in Frederick Hoschke (Stephen Caffrey). We watch a crush in the making, Bourne’s on a North Dakota gal, Beulah Amidon (Heather Ehlers).

With the publication of one essay, then another, Bourne gathers steam as an intellectual with a mission, and a yen to see the world. By way of an Act 2 flashback, Belluso’s best scene condenses Bourne’s European travels. It unfolds as a dreamlike vignette, and for a while, at least, “The Body of Bourne” escapes the shackles of hidebound biography.

Belluso, whose intriguing contemporary drama “Henry Flamethrowa” recently premiered under Peterson’s direction, at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, R.I., refuses to lead his audience to the trough of pathos. His text incorporates Bourne’s writings, what others said about him, and legal and social strictures of the day, under which Bourne was forced to cope.

The contextual material helps, but it’s tied to a familiar-seeming story line of adversity, triumph, adversity, triumph and ultimately death (during the 1918 influenza epidemic). En route, Bourne’s relationships and, more important, his own private defense mechanisms are pencil-sketched. More than once, Belluso has Bourne overhearing someone saying something awful about his appearance. That’s an easy way to get a point across.

Director Peterson stages the play with an eye toward fluidity. She has a first-rate scenic design courtesy of Rachel Hauck, one of those deceptively bare stages that takes on new pieces of furniture as the setting demands. We see the props of Bourne’s life lined up behind a large metal screen; Christopher Komuro’s elegant projections flash Bourne’s own words on the same screen.

The cast is solid enough, with exceptional work from Ann Stocking in a variety of roles. Belluso’s play has been served well enough. I wonder, though, if earlier drafts were a little wilder, a little rougher and more stimulating--more attuned, in other words, to Bourne himself.

* “The Body of Bourne,” Mark Taper Forum, Music Center of Los Angeles County, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Also: 2:30 p.m. July 11. No performance 7:30 p.m. July 15. Ends July 15. $30-$44. (213) 628-2772. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.

Clark Middleton: Randolph Bourne

Jenny O’Hara: Sara Bourne, others

Jodi Thelen: Ruth Bourne, others

Nicolas Coster: Uncle Halsey, others

Ann Stocking: Helen Hummel, others

Heather Ehlers: Beulah Amidon, others

Stephen Caffrey: Frederick Hoschke, others

Mitchell Edmonds, Lisa Lovett-Mann, Michele Marsh, Jill Remez, Michael Eric Strickland, Christopher Thornton: Chorus

Written by John Belluso. Directed by Lisa Peterson. Scenic design by Rachel Hauck. Costumes by Candice Cain. Lighting by Geoff Korf. Sound by Darron L. West. Projections by Christopher Komuro. Production stage manager James T. McDermott.