‘Voices’: Strong Acting, Arcane Script

Playing five characters who linger at the table after a lavish dinner party, Dutch actor Jeroen Willems displays impressive chameleonic abilities in “Voices” at Macgowan Hall’s Little Theater at UCLA. But the script itself falls flat.

The bulk of the text was assembled from the writings of the Italian filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini. His words were placed in the mouths of a diffident and irony-besotted intellectual, a hulking Italian manager and his subservient sidekick, and a vampish woman who transforms into the devil. At the end, excerpts from speeches and articles by a Shell International chairman, Cor Herkstroter, were compiled into post-prandial remarks by a captain of industry.

The parts are supposed to add up to a critique of capitalism, according to the publicity materials and some European reviews. But at UCLA, the text seems excessively detached and arcane, especially in contrast with some of the real-life stories in the news that might also be seen as critiques of capitalism, for example the Enron Corp. saga.

Lacking any tangible evidence of suffering victims, concentrating only on the supposed power centers of society, “Voices” is far too oblique to serve as devastating commentary.

Strictly as a performer, Willems generates interest. His hesitant intellectual is worlds away from his drag act as the vamp, in which he climbs atop the table and performs stunts with his tongue and later with his woman’s wig.

More subtly, his Italian capitalist has a brutish style that’s missing from his later multinational capitalist, whose cool inflections sound well-schooled by corporate handlers.

Still, director Johan Simons’ languid pacing, the meandering text and the solo format itself--which allows little opportunity for pointed exchanges between characters--give “Voices” a muffled quality.

It’s a production of the Dutch company Zuidelijk Toneel Hollandia and is, along with “Room,” one of the opening presentations in UCLA Live’s Solo Festival.

“Voices,” UCLA’s Little Theater, Macgowan Hall, northeast corner of the campus, near Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue, Westwood. Today through Sunday, 8:30 p.m. $35. (310) 825-2101. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.