‘Bible Wall’ Projects a Personal Tale

Part “Stairway to Heaven,” part “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Michael Mizerany’s new dance play, “The Bible Wall,” is witty and touching.

Seen Saturday at the Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center in the burgeoning theater district of Magnolia and Lankershim boulevards in North Hollywood, this “semiautobiographical” coming-out work, written and choreographed by Mizerany, takes place in Limbo.

Luke, the protagonist danced by Mizerany, faces childhood traumas induced by Catholic doctrines about homosexuality. He is guided by Joe Seely, an unlikely Christ-like figure who spends his time watching reruns of “The Golden Girls” and ordering pizza when not serving a higher power as comforter, interrogator and soul catcher in the rye.

A finely honed dancer, Mizerany knows how to occupy and cut an expressive figure in space as well as focus the viewer’s eye exactly where he wants it. The surprise is how good a writer he is in balancing seriousness and comedy, and the general and the particular. The most touching moments involve Luke reliving the rejection of Keith, his first love.

Seely did splendidly in his virtuoso actor’s role, shifting character from a Christ figure sometimes out of his depth to Irish priest, from Luke’s disgusted dad to lover Keith, as dictated by Marco De Leon’s swift lighting changes. (De Leon also designed the modest set that makes much of little.)

Juan Zadala excelled in two comic roles that suggest that even in the next world some souls are more equal than others.

The evocative liturgical music was drawn from Richard Einhorn’s score for Carl Dreyer’s 1928 silent film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc.”

Don’t miss Mizerany’s childhood and family photos on the bulletin board next to the ticket booth.

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Information: Michael Mizerany’s “The Bible Wall” repeats Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Whitmore-Lindley Theater Center, 11006 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. $18. (818) 761-0704.