Humor Lightens ‘Bullfight’s’ Mortal Message

In “The Bullfight,” at Stages, prolific Venezuelan playwright Rodolfo Santana employs the ancient art of the bullfight to make a sweeping metaphysical statement about the nature of man’s struggle within the limited arena of his own mortality.

If that sounds a bit turgid, it’s no wonder. Tautological references and obvious symbolism abound. Fortunately, in Charles Philip Thomas’ translation, the play contains a bracing degree of humor, the saving grace of this sometimes pretentious parable.

Paul Verdier, who adapted and directed this U.S. premiere, maximizes the piece’s puckishness without violating the playwright’s loftier intentions. Verdier’s staging is austere yet balletic, well-executed by his agile young cast.

While guitarist Jeffrey Briggs strums in the background, a chorus, led by a black-clad La Muerte (Lucia Grillo), assembles on stage to watch the encounter between El Nin~o (Eric Szmanda), a handsome young matador, and Florentino (G. Eric Miles), the magnificent bull who proves his undoing (Szmanda and Miles alternate in their roles with Juan Monsalvez and Byron Quiros, respectively).

Fatally gored during the opening moments, the matador engages in a sometimes surreal, sometimes straightforward dialectic with his beastly antagonist. Suspended in the interval between life and death, the matador and the bull soon realize that there are no victors in this contest. The point is the struggle itself, the valiant but futile effort to outstrip fate.

Szmanda and Miles are well-balanced performers who humanize their prototypal characters. Jim Sweeters has done a remarkable job of reconfiguring the Stages’ courtyard into a mini-bullring, but the chatter and clattering cutlery from a nearby cafe are persistent distractions.

BE THERE

“The Bullfight,” Stages, 1540 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 29. $18. (323) 465-1010. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.