Wakings!

Reviewed by Martίn Hernández

Odyssey Theatre

Through June 5

Ranging from humorous to obtuse, this mélange of one-acts explores the realms of inner consciousness, reality, and fantasy. Despite director Ron Sossi’s adroit staging and his talented ensemble, the results are mixed, mostly due to the static nature of some of the plays.

Harold Pinter’s wry Victoria Station is the most appealing of the lot. A hardnosed London taxi dispatcher (Ron Bottitta) is increasingly unnerved by a carefree driver (C.J. O’Toole) as their radio conversation devolves into an absurdist battle of wits. The driver is not only lost in his own world but in the Ccity as well, an avatar of autonomy glibly countering the dispatcher’s demand for order. Bottitta’s and O’Toole’s comic banter and Pinter’s other shenanigans hold our interest up to the piece’s all too abrupt end.

A sequel of sorts to Washington Irving’s tale of Rip van Winkle (Darrel Larson), Robert Coover’s Rip Awake has our white bearded hero delivering a tedious rant about his stolen years. Lamenting his myriad losses, he also conducts an inner battle over whether to avenge those who took those years, eternalized as he paces the stage like a caged lion. Segued between two Pinter pieces, it seemed as if some notorious “Pinter pauses” had invaded Larson’s stalwart performance but it was merely his noble struggle for lines.

In Pinter’s thoughtful A Kind of Alaska, Deborah (Diana Cignoni) has just awakened from a decades long sleep, thanks to her doctor (Bottitta.) Along with Deborah’s long-suffering sister (Kristina Ladegaard), the doctor attempts to coax Deborah into the present rather than the past to which she ardently clings. Set designer Song Yi Park’s multiple hanging and unevenly shaped screens could symbolize Deborah’s fragmented mind as well as the broken family resulting from Deborah’s condition. The trio deliver moving turns as believable characters engaged a psychic salvage operation.  

Siddhartha recounts the final steps of the Buddha’s consciousness raising in mimed action, accompanied by a cast recording of novelist Herman Hesse’s original text. The piece is short and slight, consisting of a bewigged Siddhartha (O’Toole) sitting in meditation, then cleansed with water by fellow cast members behind a screen, then returning as the bald and beatific Buddha to again sit in meditation. The attempt at profundity is merely listless.

The program notes tout a possible Wakings! Part Two. If so, let’s hope more compelling pieces will be in the offing.

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 South Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles; Wed., (May 11 & 25 only) & Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru June 5. www.odysseytheatre.com