The characters are all exceptional well written and their emotions and personalities ring true. We immediately like these people and identify with there grief. During the course of the play we will learn that each of them feels estranged from their own families and only feels a kinship and emotional connection with this chosen group of friends. Their goals and life style choices are the causes of their isolation. They were protected and comfortable until the accident which totally shatters their equilibrium.
The plot is jarred by the entrance of Robbie’s nine year older brother a self-styled small time hood, drunk and high. Jimmy (Ben McGroarty) who prefers to be called Pale arrives in the middle of the night to pick up his brothers things. “Now, ‘cause someone has been leaving messages for him all over town and he doesn’t like notes cluttering up his life”. He doesn’t like pushy broads or gays either.
There’s a clear family resemblance, but Pale is nothing like Robbie. He is loud, crude, scary and unpredictable and in spite of his overbearing attitude he and Anna together mourn Robbie’s loss. Pale leads Anna to suspect that Robbie might have been murdered.
Anna has given up dance for choreography and is considering marrying Burton the screenwriter who like Larry also feels he has sold out. Burton however doesn’t seem to care about this. He has resolved that all scripts get screwed up by the untalented fools hired to make them into movies. Burton claims his wealthy family is often drunk and boring, and he yearns to be with Anna and her dedication to art. He takes the large fees for his scripts and simply moves on to the next. Anna is his muse and inspires him to write a love story, as a way to discover his authentic self.
Larry comes back from a Christmas visit to his family in Detroit, realizing he has nothing in common with his siblings. And Detroit is not New York not in ambience, lifestyle or opportunity. His New York world where his roommates are dancers, and talented, contrasts with his old friends’ glazed looks not comprehending what he and his new friends do as performers and creators of art. Larry has learned he can never return to his home. His presence upsets a pivotal moment for Anna and Brad and things will never be the same.
By the end of the play every character has removed their mask and laid their sole bare for all to see. They are then able to move on with their lives.
What struck me about this production was the realism of the emotions, in a time when we as a culture seem obsessed by reality shows on television. The richness of the language of a great Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright like Wilson should not be lost. You should take the opportunity to explore the intricacies of these people and their lives, as they bare themselves on stage, their beauty, and complexity might reflect true mirrors of our complex times. Everyone is searching for love, striving to become their authentic self. The writing is so eloquent, at times gritty, but always invigorating.
Lanford Wilson deals with how people often get involved with characters who seem so wrong for them. This production which opened this weekend at the Flight theater in Hollywood. Revives Burn This first produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 1987, traveling that same year to the Circle Rep, Steppenwolf, and on to Broadway. Wilson waited for John Malkovitch to be available, and the show opened to mixed reviews. Some people questioned how Joan Allen could fall for the mixed up Malkovitch character, but then as now that is one of the major themes of the play.
I spoke with director, David Watson, who has worked in theatre for the last 25 years. He is thrilled to be directing his first play in LA, especially with an ensemble cast composed of three of his former students. David said it was a joy to have so good a script to work with, filled with metaphors, words that are graceful and poignant. He was concerned it would need some updating, since it was written in the 80′s. It seems quite timely with its vulnerable characters, who in the end shed their masks and there is magic when Larry talks about the Flying Dutchman who goes to Norway seeking love and a loving woman throws herself into the fjord to break the Dutchman’s spell.
David said it was exciting to see his students develop and grow as people and actors. He said the play was more than a love triangle, it was about love, and to me in the end, all of the characters pasts are revealed, and each has been somehow transformed, through love. For love, lust, and loss, never leave us the same. And indeed, some people fall for the least likely of choices, cupid has a weird way of slinging those arrows, and removing the layers of family histrionics. Director David Watson is also a master mask maker which is poetic because this play is so much about the masks we all wear. He recently lived in Sligo, Ireland and Italy teaching mask making.
Each of the players are now working in LA, Eli Mahar,(Burton) is a core member of LA based Meadow’s Basement Theatre Co., and his televison credits include The West WIng, JAG, 90210. Recently he played a one man Led Zeppelin.
Melanie Hawkins(Anna) is classically trained in ballet and theatre. She moves like a dancer throughout the play. From the way she walks across a room to the moments when she relaxes on a couch. All of her body language rings true. She has performed in HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me, and The 11th Hour for CBS and The Middleman.
Mark Thornton( Larry) appeared in the premiere of Horton Foote’s The Habitation of Dragons. His New York credits include, Henry IV, and The Kingdom. He spent a season with The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and has appeared in the film The Wackness and the Sex & the City television series.
Ben McGroarty(Pale) performed off Broadway in NY, and has appeared in independent films. He is also a producer of Burn This.
Burn This casts a spell over it’s actors and audience, it is well worth the trip to Hollywood. You should come and succumb to it’s mystery and charms. Now through September 13 at the The Flight Theater at the Comples, 6476 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood, California. http://www.burnthispaly.info
West (1983) is a rarely-produced play by Steven Berkoff that depicts the hard, gritty, working-class milieu of London’s East End. Protagonist Mike belongs to a local gang, called upon to avenge the slaying of one of their number by the rival Hoxton Mob. Mike is selected to be his gang’s champion chosen to represent his mates in single combat against his opposite number, the Hoxton Monster, a formidable thug of singular brutality and menace.
Trailers From Hell
