Listening to ‘Soundings’ of the Heart

Linguists have long known that it’s not just clothes that make the man, but his speech patterns as well. Beverly Olevin’s slightly contrived “Soundings,” at the Odyssey Theatre, is a thoughtful rumination about how stuttering has influenced the lives of two men, Jason (Jonathan Brent) and Paul (Ed F. Martin), who meet at a Santa Barbara institute that helps young people achieve and retain normal levels of fluent speech.

Jason is a tattooed, cigarette-smoking punk sent to the center by a judge who thought learning to communicate better might release some of his repressed anger. Paul, at 42, is out of place, but earnestly determined to change his life for personal reasons.

Under the direction of Jon Lawrence Rivera, Brent and Martin give sensitive portrayals of two men trapped by their speech impediments and social stereotypes. But Olevin’s script is not always convincing. The brief romantic clinch between one of the center’s technicians (Allison Sie) and Paul is awkward. Nothing leads up to it, and it goes nowhere. Jason’s dysfunctional family is left conveniently out of the mix.

These are minor quibbles in what is otherwise a thought-provoking play with heartfelt portrayals about a problem that’s seldom addressed.

*

“Soundings,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. except June 3, 2 p.m. only. Ends July 1. $19.50-$23.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.