‘Redwood’ envelops Newport audience

Tom Titus

What are the chances of a 17-year-old half-Vietnamese girl finding

her natural father in a place where the woods, literally, are full of

Vietnam War veterans? As the young lady herself admits, about the

same as winning the lottery.

This doesn’t stop the determined Geri Reardon, however. She’s been

using her summer vacations with her aunt in Northern California for

this purpose since she was a little girl. And this year, all her

efforts may pay off.

The distinguished playwright Lanford Wilson (“Tally’s Folly,” “The

Hot L Baltimore”) hones in on this need for completion, or closure,

in his stirring drama “Redwood Curtain,” now on stage at the Newport

Theater Arts Center. It’s a craftsman-like three-hander, a deeply

involving personal journey calculated to touch and move its audience.

Director David Colley has cast three excellent performers in this

richly textured exercise, and their interaction weaves a compelling,

occasionally complicated story. It’s quite brief at an

intermission-free hour and 45 minutes, which still could have been

shortened with the omission of a subplot that does nothing to advance

the story.

Chances are Wilson realized his play was a virtual one-act and

attempted to extended it with a tiring segment about industry’s

encroachment on the environment. This only succeeds in temporarily

derailing the main thrust of the story and has nothing to do with the

girl’s search for her father.

The centerpiece of “Redwood Curtain” -- apart from the giant trees

that occupy half the stage -- is the magnificent performance of Julia

Cho as the young lady on a quixotic personal quest. Cho’s Geri is a

brilliant, highly articulate overachiever and gifted concert pianist

with self-anointed supernatural power, and the young actress enriches

this character with a tremendously moving depiction.

The old man she virtually stalks in the woods -- a shellshocked

former combat engineer who “doesn’t do well with people” -- receives

a deeply involving portrayal from Howard Patterson. Shuffling,

averting eye contact and shouting at his unseen dog, Patterson

inhabits this pitiful derelict with painful realism.

Cheryl Pellerin completes the cast as Geri’s Aunt Geneva, the only

one of the three who seems fully in touch with the realities of the

modern world. Pellerin performs her mediator character skillfully,

but is charged with projecting the play’s immaterial subplot, a task

she handles quite well.

The Newport theater has faced and conquered the challenge of a

woodsy setting before -- in last season’s “Camping With Henry and

Tom” -- but set designer Martin Eckmann has outdone himself with the

construction of three giant redwoods, which dominate the stage and

are so crucial to the story.

Mitch Atkins’ fine lighting design and Tom Phillips’ costumes --

particularly Patterson’s ragged attire -- enhance the show

considerably.

“Redwood Curtain” will touch many hearts on a variety of levels

even today, some 30 years after the Vietnam War’s conclusion. Just

bring a warm coat in case the temperature inside is even chillier

than outside, as it was opening night.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.