THIS `WINDOW' INTO THEIR SOULS NOT OPEN ENOUGH.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

`I AM NOT Annie Sullivan,'' declaims Rachel, the cognitive scientist trying to keep a borderline savage from the gallows. Roger that. Rachel's no miracle worker, and ``Open Window,'' the latest output from Deaf West Theatre, is, alas, no miracle. This new work by Stephen Sachs - co-produced by Deaf West and the Pasadena Playhouse, where it's being staged - feels more like a rumination in search of a story.

The success of ``Big River,'' ``Oliver!'' and several tailored adaptations of classics has hoisted the bar of expectations for the North Hollywood-based Deaf West. Original works have not, alas, been as dynamic as the recent customizing of plays like ``A Streetcar Named Desire'' or ``True West.'' Which makes the 90-minute ``Open Window'' all the more disappointing.

Like William Gibson's ``The Miracle Worker,'' ``Open Window'' examines language as a means to a kind of salvation. The only hope for Cal - a deaf young man accused of strangling the father who kept him chained up in a basement for 12 years - is his capacity to communicate. If Rachel (played by Linda Bove) - who is also deaf - illuminates that flame by getting Cal to sign a couple of words together, then he is fit to stand trial. Perhaps more importantly, a communicating Cal would go a long way toward validating Rachel's own belief system about the universality of language. ``Open Window'' is ultimately more concerned with the doctor's fate than with the patient's.

Fair enough. We don't require any built-in assurance that Cal will grow up to achieve Helen Keller-like greatness. And there aren't many actors who can bring us into their corner as quickly and easily as Deaf West's Bove, who - signing or occasionally speaking - easily holds the stage. (Jacqueline Schultz provides Rachel's speaking voice.)

That said, apart from some obligatory late revelations about Rachel and Susan (Shoshannah Stern), the admiring but ambitious young psychologist brought in to consult on Cal's case, ``Open Window'' is rather empty. Indeed, how could it be otherwise when both Cal (Chris B. Corrigan), the accused murderer, and Susan, the philosophical counterpoint to Rachel, are little more than ciphers? ``Open Window'' is technically interesting (if a bit heavy on sound effects), and director Eric Simonson and his cast smoothly integrate the use of voice actors (who peer over the top of Chris Barreca's institutional set) into the proceedings. But the central characters simply aren't that compelling.

For reasons that will later become apparent, Rachel, once a psychological all-star, has essentially banished herself to the Styx of a state-operated asylum. Susan, 24, has somehow wormed her way into the spotlight of the Cal consultation. She views Rachel as a pioneer and quickly develops a rapport with Cal that outshines everything the more experienced Rachel has been able to accomplish. But for all her capabilities, Susan might just possess an ulterior motive that makes her less than noble.

We eventually get a look at Rachel's dark secret, even before the identity of a quiet young boy (Jake Grafman and Michael Adam Soudakoff in alternating performances) who follows Rachel around the stage is explained. Simonson gives these interludes a ghostly tinge. And Corrigan lends an air of desperation to the drama.

Unsettling, ``Open Window'' often is. Gripping and psychologically interesting, less so.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

OPEN WINDOW - Two and one half stars

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Nov. 20.

Tickets: $37 to $53. Call [phone]; www.pasadenaplayhouse.org.

In a nutshell: Unsatisfying, character-thin rumination on the importance of language, partially disguised as a mystery.

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Photo:

Chris B. Corrigan and Shoshannah Stern share a scene in the Deaf West Theatre production of ``Open Window,'' at the Pasadena Playhouse.