Hypnotic Focus on Rural Poor in ‘Mud’

It’s not easy for the urban mind to conceive the reality of the bitterly disenfranchised world of Maria Irene Fornes’ “Mud,” at Waterfront Stage. But for those of us who have seen that world first-hand, it’s all too real.

Set in the hills of Appalachia, the three-character drama focuses on the hopeless quest of a young woman named Mae to educate and free herself from the shackles of ignorance and oppression that bind her endlessly in the futility of false dreams. She goes to school but isn’t beyond the simplest rudiments of the three R’s.

Mae is also hog-tied to Lloyd, a boy her father brought home years ago to keep her company. “Like animals,” she says, when they were old enough to “mate”--they did. Lloyd is now riddled with infection and his resulting impotence is like a stake driven between them. Enter Henry, to drive the stake further.

“Mud” creates an uneasiness in the mind, but it’s the uneasiness of recognizing counterparts outside its primitive setting. The mud in which Mae is sinking still seeps into the lives of America’s uneducated. The expert delineation of motifs and moods in Frederique Michel’s direction helps settle this uneasiness in the hypnotic warmth of the production.

The cast is an immeasurable part of the effect. Katherine Burke’s marvelous honesty and power as Mae are excellent counterpoint to the delicious naivete of John Blevins’ beautifully modulated Lloyd. Duane Whitaker unfailingly reads the simpleton’s pomposity in Henry’s sense of superiority in the trio’s colorful dance of death.

“Mud,” Waterfront Stage, 250 Santa Monica Pier, Fridays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Indefinitely. “12.50; (213) 393-6672. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

‘Candles’ Waxes Poetic as ‘Carlotta’

Wallace Stevens’ 1919 theater-piece “Carlos Among the Candles” translates well into “Carlotta,” the opening one-act in the Fountain Theatre’s “Alone.” Under Leslie Paxton’s taut direction, Deborah Lawlor is intricate and imposing as a lonely soul who finds visions of her self-imposed psychic estrangement in the dim flickering of mesmerizing candles.

The poetic brevity and scope of “Carlotta” makes an interesting contrast to the longer “Lit 305,” which follows. Ralph Hunt’s one-man play zeroes in on another private world, that of Prof. Feeney, a poetry instructor whose life is falling apart and has left him to hold on to his last iamb for dear life. We watch his final class as he injects among his few remaining students his deep, debilitating fears of failure in life.

Dan Mason is monumental as Feeney, his quick glances at his students and the anger in his physical movements illuminating the character as much as his words. This compelling performance is directed by Guy Giarrizzo.

“Alone,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood; Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 11. $12; (213) 663-1525 TDD (213) 663-2235. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

Rites of Passage for a Gay Chicano

Growing up gay and Chicano is bad enough--but Luis Alfaro did it in Boyle Heights. Fortunately he had a couple of cholos as guardian angels. They’re only two of the characters that populate Alfaro’s memories, characters which he views with the exact, discerning eye of a poet.

In his performance piece “Downtown,” Alfaro digs into his formative years for the building blocks of his personality, and it’s a tasty selection of images, from his rotating electric Virgin Mary that turned on its pedestal to bless the whole room, to the night his mother broke taboos and dragged his father from a neighborhood bar, to his image of Lupe--an illegal alien who slaves all week at a sewing machine to dance in splendor on Saturday night.

Tom Dennison’s direction is imaginative and forthright, and the one quibble would be that Alfaro hasn’t given himself enough time to expand the images that flash too quickly across the imagination.

“Downtown,” Highways Performance Space, 1651 18 St., Santa Monica; Friday-Sunday, 8:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $10; (213) 453-1755. Running time: 1 hour.

Snappy Satire at the blak & bloo

After a delightful satire on the opening numbers of musical revues, the cast of “Cut to the Chase” promises not to do that kind of show. Then they go ahead and do that kind of show, right on the tiny stage at blak & bloo.

Most of it is charming, some of it is funny, and the cast of five sparkles. Most of the sparkle comes from Judy Nazemetz and Rick Crom. Both are good in a familiar sketch about a restaurant where the waiters sing opera--and so do the customers--in which Crom has a hilarious operatic death aria after stabbing himself. His characters throughout are funny and dead on, particularly in the quickies “Dean Martin Forgets” and as a Bogart Santa testifying in “The Candy Cane Mutiny.” Nazemetz breaks the place up with her incisive portrait of a soused employee bemoaning Christmas in general and her office party in particular.

If all the sketches (by Crom and Mike Colasuonno) aren’t laugh-getters, the original score by Crom is, and it fills in the gaps brilliantly.

“Cut to the Chase,” blak & bloo, 7574 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood; Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 20. $7.50 (two drink minimum); (213) 876-1120. Running time: 1 hour. 10 minutes.

‘Firing Chamber’ an Exercise in Banality The script of David Matzke’s “The Firing Chamber,” a play about untalented pseudo-artists in L.A., should have been left in the artists’ studio when it was burned down for the insurance money. Even two directors (Jim Holmes and John Otrin) couldn’t pull it together.

The actors don’t have any better luck surviving the banality of the writing, though one scene between Ron Max (who hammers a lot on a strip of metal trim) and Bo Zenga (an “IBM sculptor”) does provide a wonderful lesson in how boring Method acting can be when no shred of technique is involved.

The “art” provided by Tim Callahan for the central character’s “gallery installation” would be turned down by a yard sale.

“The Firing Chamber,” Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa Monica Blvd.; Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m.; matinee Sun., 3 p.m. Ends Dec. 23. $10-$12; (213) 650-8507. Running time: 1 hour. 50 minutes.