THEATER REVIEW:

When Golden West College shifted its theater program from the large Mainstage Theater to the smaller, adjacent Stage West during the current period of renovation, what the college lost in seating capacity it gained in intimacy.

Leading off this three-show period of temporary downscaling is a play that thrives by being virtually thrust into your lap, the Japanese folk tale “Rashomon” by Fay and Michael Kanin, which offers contradictory accounts of an incident involving rape and killing in Japan of 1,000 years ago.

Director Tom Amen has elicited some powerful performances from his student cast, which enacts four versions of what might have happened during that fateful incident. The details are described by the bandit, the wife, the Samurai slaying victim (via a medium) and finally from a woodcutter who witnessed the event.

Whom to believe? That’s up to the audience, sort of like the play “Doubt,” which presents compelling arguments on each side. Here there are four plausible explanations, each given from a subjective point of view.

What basically occurs is that a Samurai (Lawrence Hemingway) and his wife (Michelle Terrill) are walking in the woods when they are accosted by a notorious bandit (Eric Davis), who overcomes the husband and rapes the wife. Then the husband dies, but by whose hand?

Most convincing is Davis’ egocentric bandit, who admits the crime in brutal, passionate fashion during his interrogation by an unseen court. Also compelling is Terrill’s passionately conflicting version in which she herself is the murderess.

Hemingway’s character is conjured by medium Anh-Thu Pham in a chilling sequence during which his spirit contends that his wounds were self-inflicted. Then there is the humble woodcutter (David Steen), whose eyewitness account calls up a fourth, less-heroic scenario.

Steen joins a disillusioned priest (Christian Navarro) and a loquacious wig maker (Tony Torrico) outside the Rashomon gate to the city in an attempt to make some sense out of what they have heard in the courtroom.

All deliver strong accounts, though Torrico tends to overstate his case as the cynic.

The simple but highly effective setting is designed by Sigrid Hammer Wolf.

Period costuming by Susan Thomas Babb is outstanding and enhances the authenticity of Japanese characters played by a primarily Caucasian cast.

“Rashomon” is a play that’s not often revived, probably due to its heavy dramatic and atmospheric requirements.

At Golden West College, these demands are met with consummate skill on all accounts.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Rashomon”

WHERE: Golden West College Stage West Theater

WHEN: Closing performances at 7:30 tonight through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

COST: $10 to $12

CALL: (714) 895-8150