Morality in the Mall

Gods and goddesses are congregating outside Robinsons-May. A grim reaper--wearing a pinstriped shroud and carrying a briefcase--is lurking by the elevator. And Everyman just suffered heart failure in the middle of Topanga Plaza.

It’s not going to be your average night in the mall.

“Everyman,” a 15th century morality play, gets its latest retelling as “Everyman in the Mall” this weekend in the very 20th-century setting of the indoor shopping mall. The anonymously written work traces the final moments of life, during which Everyman seeks companions to accompany him on the lonely and terrifying trip to the grave.

Much of the original language--pre-Shakespearean English in iambic tetrameter--remains in this version by Bill Rauch and Shishir Kurup of Cornerstone Theater Company, which is putting on the play.

“It was Christian propaganda when it was written,” said Kurup, “all about making men scared about not praying to God, or not living a righteous life.”

Cornerstone set out to make “Everyman” even more universal. The opening scene, for example, is set up as a convention of gods and goddess, from Athena to Yahweh.

“I think all of these gods ask for man to live righteously,” said Kurup, who co-directed with Rauch. “I think that’s where the cross of culture happens. The Indian idea of karma--that my actions lead to consequences, good or bad--that’s very much in line with you will reap what you sow.”

In life’s accounting book, Everyman comes up short in the credits column. He looks around the mall for someone or something to take with him to his reckoning, but neither friends, family nor material possessions will accompany him. In the end, it’s only his good deeds that will follow him to the grave and speak for him when he’s gone.

“It’s all about death, and [death] being about the unknown. Everyman is loath to go on the journey because he knows not where the journey leads to,” said Kurup.

Running only 80 minutes, the play never stops moving (though the audience gets to sit down at some parts). A cart of sound equipment follows the actors to project the dialogue. The lighting crew carries hand-held spotlights run on battery power.

Pulling almost magic-like swaps, the role of Everyman is handed off among six actors and actresses of different ethnicities. Armando Molina, who plays Everyman at the beginning and end, said that the jumping between parts isn’t a problem--but occasionally he loses a sense of the audience.

“You’re in a public space, so you feel like you’re there with a lot of other things. People are there to shop, mingle, eat,” he said. Still, he--and the other members of Cornerstone--relish the idea that theater doesn’t have to happen in a place with seats and a proscenium arch.

“We can theatricalize anything, even the most mundane thing,” said Molina. “Even the mall--a modern-day meeting place.”

Originally designed and adapted for Santa Monica Place, the mall at the end of the Third Street Promenade, the play got high marks when it was first performed by Cornerstone in 1994. A Los Angeles Times review called it “some of the most engaging and visually exciting theater in town.” A grant from the James Irvine foundation has allowed Cornerstone to branch out, adding Montclair Plaza and Topanga Plaza to Santa Monica Place for this revival.

While Cornerstone hopes to lure mall-goers into theater, Mary Lankester, director of marketing at Topanga Plaza, said she hopes “Everyman” will introduce theater-goers to the mall. Topanga Plaza does other cultural events, she said, but they usually take the form of daytime concerts, not actors roving the hallways.

Alison Carey, who, with Rauch is co-founder of Cornerstone, said the company has always embraced the nontraditional. Acting in the mall is just a natural extension of its mission to bring theater into shared public spaces.

“You have no sense of turf when you’re in a mall,” she said. “To call it a village green seems too quaint, but there is something about it that everyone feels ownership.”

Certainly mall patrons have little shyness about strolling through scenes. Some even join the tour, which steers the audience past escalators, storefronts and courts where the action happens.

And that’s fine with Kurup.

“Theater is dying because it’s far away from the people,” Kurup said. “Maybe if it was among the people, it wouldn’t be dying.”

*

BE THERE

“Everyman in the Mall” plays at Topanga Plaza, 6600 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills, today-Saturday, 9 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m. Box office at Robinsons-May on the second level. $9.99, $7.99 students/seniors. Thursday show is pay-what-you-can. (310) 449-1700.