‘Ray Bradbury’ Sure to Please His Fans

It’s no surprise that “The World of Ray Bradbury” at the Colony Studio Theatre abounds with the science-fiction trappings--space travel, virtual reality and whatnot--that earned its author’s reputation as a forward-looking visionary.

But what’s most striking about these seven vignettes culled from Bradbury’s plays and fiction is their preoccupation not with the future but with the past. In one way or another, each is steeped in sentimental yearning for boyhood and its limitless capacity for wonder, the inspirational wellspring for so much of Bradbury’s work.

Sometimes the connection is explicit--an excerpt from “The Martian Chronicles” in which a team of explorers stumble into the small towns of their childhoods, or a post-apocalyptic sketch about an Ed Norton-ish old derelict (Beans Morocco) whose nostalgia for the kitschy paraphernalia of our destroyed civilization gets him in trouble with totalitarian authorities.

With more subtlety, a hilarious piece about a self-conscious ghoul (Jacy Crawford) driven to carnage by sheer exasperation with the complacent future in which he’s reawakened hearkens back to horror movie melodramas of the ‘40s. And a wistful piece about a sea-monster drawn to a lighthouse aches with every child’s fascination with dinosaurs.

But perpetual adolescence is not without its drawbacks--the complete absence of a mature emotional exchange will eventually wear on all but die-hard Bradburistas. In one painfully overlong episode, children play a nasty cyber-prank on their parents; elsewhere, astronauts drifting in space after their ship explodes find nothing better to do with their last moments than hurl playground taunts. A closing scene from the finale of “Fahrenheit 451” is devoid of emotional context unless you’ve read the book.

Frequently telegraphing ideas from a soapbox limits Bradbury’s effectiveness as a dramatist--he should be grateful for the unpretentious performances in Michael David Wadler’s committed, funhouse staging, Susan Gratch’s campy high-tech scenic design and Naomi Yoshida Rodriguez’s nouveau-Jetsons costumes.

* “The World of Ray Bradbury,” Colony Studio Theatre, 1944 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Oct. 8. $18-$20. (213) 665-3011. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.