THEATER INSIDE THE COCKPIT.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

The cockpit is small and cramped, about the size of a deep walk-in closet. It's the first thing you notice, amid the eerie pre-performance piano strains and the crackling and murmuring that feeds unintelligible aviation data. Then two actresses playing flight attendants read us the safety card information about seat belts and oxygen masks, and we're off.

From our vantage point at UCLA's Macgowan Little Theater, we have a frontal view above the nose directly into that cockpit, a place that has to feel lonely and confining even during a smooth flight and is probably the most terrifying spot in creation when things get rocky.

Six times in the riveting theatrical documentary ``Charlie Victor Romeo'' a captain and his co-pilot stare down disaster. Six times, we are left with the belief that the folks who keep those big metal birds aloft fought like hell for their passengers' survival as much as for their own. Even from an experience as intense and disquieting as ``CVR,'' that belief offers some comfort to a potential passenger. Perhaps that's one reason why aviation officials have used the performance as part of training.

Created by Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels and Irving Gregory of the New York-based theater group Collective: Unconscious, ``Charlie Victor Romeo'' (the aviation code for the cockpit voice recorder) re-creates the last moments of six actual air disasters based on the edited black-box transcripts.

During the 70-minute production, we learn precious little about who these people are, and we never meet a passenger. These scenes are about highly trained individuals engaged in the most harrowing efforts of crisis management. Each scene ends with a blackout and a video monitor giving the date, casualty count and cause of the disaster as determined by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Suspense is a given. The creators vary the format such that certain scenes enact the buildup leading to the problems, while in others we join the action midcrisis. With American Eagle Flight 4184 (the Roselawn, Ind., crash in October 1994 that killed 68), for example, the captain and co-pilot (played by Michael Bruno and Dan Krumm) flirt with a flight attendant (Audrey Crabtree) before the trouble starts. With the USAF YUKLA 27 crash - the evening's shortest segment - the plane is brought down by wild geese being sucked into the engine practically before the crew knows what has happened.

The eight performers handle this most believable of dialogue without embellishment or histrionics. Michael Bruno has the glassy-smooth captain-to-passengers address cadence mastered. Krumm's captain of Aeroperu Airlines Flight 603 never addresses the passengers, but engages in some crisis-induced bickering over equipment failure with first officer Julia Randall. Even in an emergency, Stuart Rudin's captain of United Airlines Flight 232 manages to let a bit of wry humor seep in. ``You can write off your PC if we we make it,'' he tells the first officer before correcting himself, ``when we make it.''

Earlier performances of ``CVR'' have been staged in theater configurations that place the audience within inches of the performers; making them passengers as well as viewers. While the intimate but traditionally structured Macgowan doesn't afford that luxury, Collective: Unconscious's technical team of Jamie Mereness (sound designer), Jonah Lawrence and Kevin Reilly (live sound mix) and Patrick Daniels (lighting) re-create turbulent skies. Between the constant hum of the engines, the frightening alarms and plenty of seat rumblings, we are there.

And from a live theater point of view, it doesn't get more sobering than hearing an actor shout ``Crash landing! Crash landing! Crash landing!'' and knowing they are actually the last words a human being spoke.

``CHARLIE VICTOR ROMEO''

Where: UCLA's Macgowan Little Theater.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays until July 15. (No performance on July 4.).

Tickets: $12 to $35. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three and one half stars

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Photo:

Patrick Daniels, left, Audrey Crabtree and Irving Gregory in a scene from the Macgowan Little Theater production of ``Charlie Victor Romeo.''