Reliving an enigmatic expedition

The story of Louis de Rougemont’s life begins to unfold on an empty stage with no scenery.

Actor Gregory Itzhin, portraying Rougemont in South Coast Repertory’s production of “Shipwrecked!,” is relying on his storytelling skills, fellow actors and a cast of characters including an octopus, aborigines, sharks and a dog to transform the stage into the colorful adventure that playwright Donald Margulies has fashioned.

Itzhin said Louis de Rougemont was a tabloid sensation in mid-19th century England when his tale of leaving home on a ship bound for a pearl-diving expedition and the mishaps that followed was published in Wide World magazine.

The sensation arose because of the nature of the things Rougemont described.

Was it a true story? Was it a hoax? Was part of it true? Why did he tell it this way?

The question remains now, as it did then.

Itzhin said “that becomes the cutting point, and the theme of this play is what’s truth, and what’s not.

“This man tells this story, and it’s up to the people in this audience and this play to decide whether it’s the truth or not.”

The production and the show itself is “something like you’ve never seen before,” said Itzhin, as the play continues for an hour-and-a-half with no intermission, and tells the story as it moves between moments during a 30-year period.

The story “leaps over time — days and weeks, maybe months go by, perhaps as much as a year — so in one sentence you’ve covered that much time,” Itzhin said.

“Shipwrecked!” was originally presented as a staged reading in South Coast Repertory’s 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival, with Itzhin as the Louis de Rougemont character.

He said audiences were captivated at the reading, and that as a play, “it cries out for an audience.” It’s the simplest of stories — well told — and that the story is easy to follow and to listen to.

Rougemont spoke in a very “stilted” sort of style, said Itzhin, making the words harder to memorize, but very lyrical and poetic to the ears.

For Itzhin, an Emmy-nominated television actor for his role on “24,” returning to the stage is always a little scary, because it’s live.

Itzhin said that in film and television, you learn your lines, and if you don’t get them right, you get another take. Movies and television are owned by the director and the editor, and the result is in their hands, but on stage it’s you, all alone.

“Part of it is overcoming the fear. It’s scary every time, and then when you’re doing it, it’s kind of exhilarating, and then when you’re done, you say, ‘ah I did that,’ and then it’s the same thing all over again the next night.”

Itzhin inhabits the characters he plays, and the role of Rougemont affords him plenty of opportunity to challenge himself.

“Sometimes I read [the story] from a book, like they’re all sitting listening to me, sometimes I jump out of the book thing and act. It’s narrated, it’s a play of the imagination, and at the same time there’ll be a lot of stuff floating around up there.”

Rougemont talks to his mother, he talks to a captain, he’s on a ship, he talks to a dog, and then he talks to the audience.

There are tragedies, a shipwreck, and he spends years on an island.

All in an hour-and-a-half.

“The best place for a play to take place,” Itzhin said, “is somewhere between the audience and the actors.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: South Coast Repertory presents “Shipwrecked!

WHEN: Opening tomorrow night and running through Oct. 14; showtimes are 7:45 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 2 and 7:45 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

WHERE: The Julianne Argyros Stage at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

COST: $28 to $62

INFO: For more information or to purchase tickets, call (714) 708-5555 or go to www.scr.org.

For a slidehow of pictures, click here.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at sue.thoensen@latimes.com.