'Orpheus' Slow Descent

Val Xavier (Gale Harold, "Queer as Folk"), a restless 30-year-old determined to leave his partying and womanizing past behind, arrives in a small Southern town in the late 40s, early 50s. He looks for work at a general store owned by Lady Torrance (Denise Crosby, "Star Trek: the Next Generation").

It took Tennessee Williams more than 17 years to complete the play "Orpheus Descending," and it is more dramatic and complex than the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice on which it is based. Watching the entire three hours made me, at times, wish I was on vacation in sunny Greece and not in Theatre/Theater on Pico.

The first act moves quickly, spiked with funny bits such as Carol Cutrere's (model-turned-actress Claudia Mason) attempt to talk Val in to going jukin' with her. "Jukin' is when you drink and drive, then drink and dance, then just drink and then only drive."

Unfortunately, the following two acts don't live up to the high expectations raised by the first. The dialogue grows increasingly long, predictable and monothematic. Crosby, whose character is of Italian descent, fails to capture Lady's explosive passion. While Lady Torrance is supposed to be older than Val, Crosby's version looks too old and tired.

Even when she discovers the terrible truth of her sick tyrant of a husband, who bought her after her father's tragic death, she remains strangely content and meticulously plans the opening of the confectionery adjacent to her store where she resuscitated the world of her childhood.

Contrary to Crosby's pale performance, Harold manages to make plausible his character's problems and twisted past. His best friend and life companion is a guitar marked up with musicians' signatures. Whenever he is in trouble, has to make decisions, or seeks to comfort himself or others, he breaks out into the wonderfully melancholic "holy grass."

Fortunately, Harold, who grew up in the South, is not the only one in this Lou Pepe-directed production who understands his job. The two dialect coaches, John Sperry and Joy Ellison, deserve credit for leaving me guessing what the hell was going on on stage for the first five minutes of the play. All actors, with the exception of Crosby, nailed the warm, southern sing-song.

Kelly Ebsary and Sheila Shaw as Dolly Hamma and Beulah Binnings take on the duties of a Greek chorus, providing moral judgement. Guided by the suppressed desires and hypocritical values of the segregated South of the 40s and 50s, they turn on everyone who tries to break free from oppressive social restrictions, like Val and Carol, who fight for their own personal freedom, social justice or equality. Val is chased out of the county the same way African Americans normally are, while Carol tries to rescue Val from becoming one of the small-towners.

If Pepe had been able to make the second and third acts as fast-paced and engaging as the first one, three hours would not have seemed so long. In its current form, though, this "Orpheus Descending" is not the introduction that'll make Tennessee Williams enthusiasts out of theatergoers.