Cal in Camo

Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Red Dog Squadron and VS. Theatre Company
Through November 9

It could be said that Sam Shepard perfected the strain of poetic realism that runs in American playwriting, particularly in works such as True West and Buried Child. Symbols abound, from characters representing civilization and wilderness to bushels of corn growing from a dead field. This sort of thing is difficult to achieve, as there’s often a fine line between profundity and pretentiousness. William Francis Hoffman’s Cal in Camo —a new co-production from Red Dog Squadron and VS. Theatre Company — boasts an excellent cast and some sharp dialogue, yet finally goes over the top in its attempt at a poetic catharsis it doesn’t quite attain.

Cal (Bree Turner) didn’t want to raise her baby in the city, so she and her husband Tim (Brad Raider) purchased a rural home. She likes it, but she isn’t enjoying being a new mother. Tim, who’d been a star sales rep in the city, struggles to make ends meet in his new environment. Conflict arises when Cal invites her brother Flynt (Tim Cummings) to come stay with them for a while. Flynt has just lost his wife in a tragic accident, but Cal hasn’t invited him so she can care for him in his grief so much as to feed her own desperate need for family.

Turner does a nice job with a tricky role, balancing Cal’s reflexive lashing out with moments that show how her character is damaged and deserving of sympathy. Raider is very good as the smooth-talking Tim; he’s effective in displaying how an alpha male in an urban setting can falter in a rural one. Cummings, reliably one of the best actors in L.A. theatre, brings dramatic intensity as Flynt, in a performance that personifies the maxim of still waters running deep.

Director Amy K. Harmon gets nuanced and emotional work from her actors, but a scene involving a storm ran for so long with nobody onstage that I wondered if the production was having a technical issue. Se Hyun Oh’s kitchen set is spare but effective. Hoffman is clearly a talented writer, and is especially skilled with humorous dialogue (Flynt opines that people living in houses on stilts to avoid floods are essentially living in the river). It’s the heavily symbolic material in the play’s final third that doesn’t quite convince, although the talented cast gives it their all.

VS. Theatre, 5453 Pico Blvd., Mid-Wilshire; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Nov. 9. www.reddogsquadron.com. Running time: approximately one hour and 30 minutes with no intermission.