‘Everest’ too much of a climb

“Climbing Everest” at Burbank’s Colony Theatre is the fictional

modern-day story of a young woman driven to bring some peace into her

shattered life by retrieving her dead brother’s body from the slopes

of Mount Everest.

The performers are uniformly professional, as always. Katie A.

Keane as our heroine, the plucky Mallory Falconer, is to be commended

for simply memorizing her lines, all two hours and 15 minutes worth.

As Mallory’s “climbing partner” turned unexpected lover, Aaron

Hendry is an absolute delight. Feodor Chin is clear, open, honest and

focused as Jinwu, a young man smitten enough with Mallory in a few

minutes to risk his life for her, and human enough to be hurt and

infuriated by her rejection.

The Colony is, and remains, a first-rate professional theater,

primarily because of the outstanding leadership of Artistic Director

Barbara Beckley, who smartly allows the theater to take chances on

new works.

This time around, the original show is directed by the author’s

husband, Colony Theatre member Al D’Andrea, who, to his credit, knows

how to cast good actors. So the problems seem to start with a lack of

perspective on what is and isn’t a play ready for the public.

“Climbing Everest” was originally written by author Margit Ahlin

as a screenplay, but she later decided the story would work better as

a stage play. Generally speaking, screenplays demand that action

tells the story, while stage plays focus on the spoken word to reveal

character and events.

When we listen in as Mallory’s sweet and funny brother Shipton,

endearingly played by Matthew Siegan, calls her on a cellphone from

the top of the world as he freezes to death (something this horrific

really did happen in 1996), can’t we be trusted to understand how

awful that is for her, without a monologue?

Then there’s the problem with Mallory herself. There’s a good

reason most bodies on Mount Everest don’t get recovered. It’s called

common sense.

Mallory’s mother (Carol Ketay), having lost a beloved husband and

son in the space of two short years, sits all day in distracted

grief, unable to take off her bathrobe or get dressed by herself.

Then there are a few technical difficulties. Most of the time, the

set seems poorly lit. Mount Everest should be nothing if not light

and snow.

The set itself, designed by Yevgenia Nayberg, is a functional

stack of square white boxes.

* MARY BURKIN is an actress and Glendale lawyer.