‘Birthday Party’ Keeps Its Theatrical Charge

Poor Stanley. He’s wasting away in a rundown boardinghouse, virtually a recluse, yet two menacing men have come to cart him away--on the day that his landlady insists is his birthday. It’s party time.

“The Birthday Party” was the first of Harold Pinter’s plays to be produced in London. Now, more than 40 years later, this vintage Pinter retains its theatrical charge in a Matrix Theatre production.

As with all Matrix productions, every role is double cast. Judging from two performances last weekend, most of the actors are better than good, and you probably won’t regret seeing any of them. However, in the pivotal role of Stanley, I’ve got to go with Jay Karnes.

Especially in his first scene, when he shares breakfast with his landlords, Karnes emits his gravelly growls with split-second timing that produces some major laughs. His gestures are more extravagant than those of the production’s other Stanley, Raphael Sbarge, who’s good enough but doesn’t offer anything quite as distinctive as Karnes’ work.

In most of the other roles, the differences are equally striking, but they don’t matter much because either interpretation is equally interesting.

Angela Paton and Gloria Dorson are both brilliant as the landlady. Paton is more fluttery, feminine and has an especially piercing gaze. Dorson looks more intimidating as she projects her half-maternal, half-seductive advances toward Stanley. In the smaller role of her husband, Robert Symonds has a more irascible, impatient edge than does Ralph Drischell’s kindlier, more angular old man.

Playing Goldberg, the leader of the two intruders, Armin Shimerman is compact, wiry, Cagney-esque, and he spits out his phony bonhomie with glittering precision. Lawrence Pressman is bigger, more of a natural bruiser, but he too hacks his way through Pinter’s words with uncommon clarity.

On opening weekend, Pressman was paired with Morlan Higgins as his chief thug, and Shimerman with Gregory Itzin. Higgins looks a little more capable of thuggery than Itzin, so it’s easy to imagine him working well with either Pressman or Shimerman. But if Pressman is matched with Itzin, there might be some minor confusion over which is the enforcer.

Of course, there are plenty of fascinating details that we’re not necessarily supposed to understand in this play--out of such details grows the play’s reputation for mystery. So any way of matching these actors is probably going to have its compensations. Both Higgins and Itzin have mastered the thug’s impatient, brass-tacks quality.

Rachel Robinson and Lisa Akey play a neighbor well, but without quite the same personal styles seen in the larger roles.

Under Andrew J. Robinson’s direction, this “Party” is an edge-of-the-chair experience.

*

“The Birthday Party,” Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 2. $20. (323) 852-1445.