KEEP YOUR DISTANCE FROM 'SHORE'.Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic 'HAVE WE MET before?'' Patricia, the former head of a multimillion- dollar rubber company asks her airplane seat mate, a male adult entertainer. ``I don't think so'' is the only reply Zul can give, because the true answer - ``Why, yes, back in a previous life 80 years ago, when you were a commissioner's wife and I was a plantation owner. You'll recall we almost had an affair'' - likely would drive Patricia to start rummaging for her Mace. But these characters did meet as I've just described. So did just about every other present-day character, each of whom sports the same name - imagine that! - as his or her 1920s counterpart. If Chay Yew's new play, ``A Distant Shore,'' were merely a rumination rumination /ru·mi·na·tion/ (roo?mi-na´shun) 1. the casting up of the food to be chewed thoroughly a second time, as in cattle. 2. on the past's influence - cosmic or otherwise - on the future, the play might settle for being contrived. No such luck. Bloated as it is with weighty philosophical dilemmas, the clunkiest of dialogue and the hot and sweaty eroticism Eroticism Aphrodite novel of Alexandrian manners by Pierre Louys. [Fr. Lit.: Benét, 783] Ars Amatoria Ovid’s treatise on lovemaking. [Rom. Lit. of D.H. Lawrence (of which the library of this unnamed southeast Asian country Noun 1. Asian country - any one of the nations occupying the Asian continent Asian nation country, land, state - the territory occupied by a nation; "he returned to the land of his birth"; "he visited several European countries" clearly has an unending supply), ``Shore'' is pretty deadly. Yew, a talented adapter (``The House of Bernarda Alba'') and director (East West Players' ``M Butterfly'') seems to be shoveling as much heft as he can into ``A Distant Shore's'' 2 1/2 hours. The play can't hold it, and the second act - set in the present - is turgid turgid /tur·gid/ (ter´jid) swollen and congested. tur·gid adj. Swollen or distended, as from a fluid; bloated; tumid. turgid swollen and congested. and ridiculous. In Act 1, set in the 1920s, Zul (played by Eric D. Steinberg) comes across Patricia (Maria Cina) on the dirt road dirt road n (US) → camino sin firme dirt road n → chemin non macadamisé or non revêtu dirt road dirt n that literally separates the two classes (colonials and natives) and barely gives her the time of day. Turns out Patricia - who is pregnant - is looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. her husband, Alan (Daniel Blinkoff), the resident commissioner who is having a passionate, D.H. Lawrence-worthy affair with Zul's intended, Salmah (Tamlyn Tomita). Given the growing attraction between Zul and Patricia, what we have here is essentially a love square instead of a triangle. Anyway, the Zul/Salmah union - inspired by Lorca's ``Blood Wedding''- culminates in a first-act cliffhanger cliff·hang·er n. 1. A melodramatic serial in which each episode ends in suspense. 2. A suspenseful situation occurring at the end of a chapter, scene, or episode. 3. . In Act 2, we're in the present, where the events of Act 1 are local legend and a few of the current players are distant relatives of people we have met before. Only now, matters of exile, nationalism, journalistic ethics and terrorism jumble together awkwardly. Robert Egan's mostly efficient staging can't clear away the plot bloat, and much of the second-act dialogue is message-heavy and tin-eared. May the present-day Zul and Patricia enjoy that plane trip to Australia. They've certainly put themselves - and an audience - through quite a bit to get there. Evan Henerson, (818) 713-3651 evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com A DISTANT SHORE - One and one half stars Where: Kirk Douglas Theatre The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located in Culver City, California and in 2004, was acquired by the famed Center Theatre Group. The theatre is the most intimate of the groups 3 stages and seats 317 patrons at max occupancy. , 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City Culver City, city (1990 pop. 38,793), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1917. It is a center of the U.S. motion-picture industry, whose roots in the city date to c.1915. Its chief manufactures are rubber products and computers. . When: 8 tonight, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Sunday. Tickets: $19 to $40. Call (213) 628-2772. In a nutshell: Long, pretentious and highly contrived love story with southeast Asian politics as the backdrop. |
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