THEATER BEAT

Pertinent truth suffuses the self-lacerating literacy of “The Designated Mourner.” Its implications are affecting and disturbing. Wallace Shawn’s 1996 requiem for intellectual freedom as Western civilization implodes receives an incisive production by Son of Semele Ensemble.

First staged at London’s National Theatre by David Hare (who subsequently filmed it with originators Mike Nichols, Miranda Richardson and David de Keyser), “Mourner” takes an audacious path around its subversive precis.

Set in an unnamed time and country beset by oligarchic oppression and guerrilla counter-reaction, “Mourner” unfolds through a three-part direct-address narrative. By stressing the emotional lives of his characters -- the titular survivor, his erudite wife and her famed poet father -- Shawn allows the topicality of encroaching class warfare to enter our awareness peripherally. Acerbic, elusive, poetic and chilling, the writing is demanding in a rarefied manner.

Accordingly, director Matthew McCray and his ace forces offer a judiciously kinetic reading. Set designer Sarah Krainin’s surreally slanted decor creates a post-Murnau netherworld, lighted by Jeremy Pivnick with typical brilliance. Suzanne Scott’s understated costumes, Ryan Poulson’s ambient sound and Adam Flemming’s ethereal videos add cohesive texture.

Real-life father and daughter Don and Sarah Boughton have a natural affinity that affords the maximum eloquence, while Michael Kass fulfills his central Shawn-surrogate role with perfectly pitched tragicomic panache. Their deftly modulated immediacy brings Shawn’s verbal pyrotechnics to gripping life, making “Mourner” as much a cause for laudatory celebration as for unnerved recognition.

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David C. Nichols --

“The Designated Mourner,” Son of Semele Theater, 3301 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (213) 351-3507. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Call for exceptions. Ends May 30. $20. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

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Latina life stories told in ‘8 Ways’

The eight autobiographical monologues in “8 Ways to Say I Love My Life & Mean It,” which played Saturday at the Los Angeles Theater Center, are written by Latina authors whose stories range in tone from the hilarious to the harrowing.

“Ways,” which has been restaged at the LATC by Diane Rodriguez, is a remounting of a production that ran at Casa 0101 in Boyle Heights. The solo vignettes treat diverse subjects, with abuse, neglect and societal strictures emerging as the most reiterative themes.

Although many of the monologues deal specifically with the issue of masculine abuse, the show is far from retributive or bitter. A common thread of forgiveness links the stories and lends a heartening universality to the whole.

Eight winning performers chart their characters’ various journeys to female empowerment with passion, humor and verve. Josefina Lopez (“Real Women Have Curves”), founding artistic director of Casa 0101, contributes the funniest piece, “My Low Self Esteem Days,” a romp about a young woman’s disastrous relationships performed by Yvonne DeLaRosa, a gifted comic actress who perfectly embodies the self-denigrating sexiness of Lopez’s protagonist.

Also particularly worthy of mention are Laura De Anda’s touching account of her dad’s struggle with schizophrenia, performed by Yolie Cortez, and Joanna Diaz’s shattering tale, performed by Jacqueline Calderon-Guido, of being separated from her hard-working single mother and shunted to the foster care system. Any time an adult actress plays a child, it’s dicey, but perfectly cast Calderon-Guido avoids caricature and makes us feel every beat of her character’s confusion and terror.

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F. Kathleen Foley --

A charming

‘Big’ musical

A bittersweet take on growing up -- with all the ambivalence it entails for children and adults alike -- “Big, the Musical” is a much better show than its short 1996 Broadway run might suggest. An engaging, intimately scaled staging from West Coast Ensemble captures its essential charms, albeit at some sacrifice of grandeur.

Adapted from the 1988 hit film about a 12-year-old boy who magically ages overnight into a man’s body, this version features a deftly crafted score by “Baby” co-creators David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr. and book by John Weidman.

Veteran contemporary musical director Richard Israel draws particularly appealing performances from Will Collyer in the central role of man-child Josh Baskin and Darrin Revitz as Susan, the corporate climber who’s seduced by Baskin’s refreshing innocence and lack of guile.

The staging sports innovation amid its budgetary trade-offs -- the giant painted keyboard isn’t driven by musical instrument digital interface and lights during the toy store number; instead, the ensemble provides the vocal accompaniment. Daniel Thomas performs full-sounding synthesized orchestration, and Christine Lakin’s original choreography effectively adapts to the small stage. Faced with the challenge posed by the requirement for young and adult actors, there’s a wide range in talent, even with the cast pared from 31 to 16.

There are plot holes, unanswered questions and an abrupt ending that Weidman’s book doesn’t attempt to resolve. But the pitch here is to the felt, rather than logical, truths. In Maltby’s deceptively breezy lyrics the characters have more freedom to explore their inner states than the movie allowed, and Shire’s upbeat pop melodies capture the story’s romanticism, from overblown adolescent traumas to the rediscovery of wonder in the most jaded hearts.

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Philip Brandes --

“Big, the Musical,” El Centro Theatre, 804 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 28. $30. (323) 460-4443. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.