By Geoff Hoff

Stories about fathers and sons are a ubiquitous presence in western literature. Stories of fathers who destroy, or attempt to destroy their sons a large subset. John Patrick Shanley’s “Beggars in the House of Plenty” is one such story. Shanley’s play takes an interesting approach to the telling, however. Told, as is often the case (see Long Day’s Journey Into Night, for example), by the one who somehow survived the assault and grew beyond it, it is presented in three parts, two of them dreams.

The first, a dreamlike memory of Johnny’s impressions of his five-year-old life in the fifties in “the old house”, remembered with the exaggeration, twisted logic and adult interpretations that such memories often hold. The second, described in the program of Theatre/Theater’s production as “sort’ve 1968″, is Johnny’s real life at the cusp of adulthood, told mostly through a conversation with his older brother Joey who he has always worshiped. The third, a nightmare where he and his brother are thrust back into the basement of the old house and he attempts to come to terms with life and his family and the mistakes they have all made with themselves and each other.

Mr. Shanley’s plays are often harsh and profane (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea), often charming and delightful (the screenplay for Moonstruck), often about Catholicism (Doubt), usually humorous and always thought provoking.  This play has elements of all of that, although the charm and delight of a Moonstruck is deeply hidden.

The Theatre/Theater production of “Beggars in the House of Plenty” is problematic, however,  for several reasons. The talented cast obviously has great respect for director Larry Moss, most of them mentioned in their program bio what a great honor it was to work with him, but in this case, sadly, I think he has led them somewhat astray. For one thing he directed it in such a way that every moment is an important moment, every line is the most important line, and if every moment is the most portentous, the real important moments get lost in the mix. There is little or no dynamic flow, it is all a fever pitch. Even in the quiet moments, and there are some, particularly in the third part, they are played with such controlled intensity that I felt the actors might lose their voices before the end of the evening.

Also, there is much humor in this play, but, especially in the first part, much of it was lost, partly because most of this section was staged in such a way that the actors don’t look at each other, often facing the audience while talking to someone across the stage. I suspect this was done to symbolize their disconnection with each other in this dream-like memory sequence, but coupled with the evenness of intensity it overwhelms the humor which then lands on the audience’s ear three beats too late, creating a lead balloon effect.

As I said, the actors are quite talented. Chris Payne Gilbert, playing Johnny, has obviously had much experience and it shows even through the constraints put upon him by this production. In the second section, the warped conversation between the two brothers, Johnny’s puzzlement, intelligence, wounds, love of his brother and need to get beyond the family are more than apparent and heartfelt.

David Gail, playing the older brother Joey, has the raw sexuality of the street tough who has designed his entire life to impress a father who simply will never be impressed. In his relationship with Johnny, he straddles the fence between the bully who perpetrates easy cruelty and sensitive friend who really loves his brother. There are moments when Mr. Gail crosses over into a cartoon characterization but even then, the character’s boiling anger and wounded sensitivity are never far from the surface.

Jack Conley as Pop has, perhaps, the hardest job as he has been required to represent an archetype with very little actual humanity. Yes, he does very much love his wife and, yes, he does have his reasons, warped as they are, for the treatment of his boys, but that all seems almost an afterthought in this production. With that, Mr. Conley is still a powerful presence on the stage.

Francesca Casale plays Ma with a ferocious determination to ignore and deny the pain swirling around her in the family. Again, she does this very well, (in the third part, she is, perhaps, the most real person there and it is hard to keep your eyes off her) but it would have been nice to see her allowed more to simply pull back and be.

Denise Crosby plays Sister Mary Kate, a sexually repressed nun who is a cousin and comes to visit the five-year-old dream memory of Johnny in order to judge everyone, and not kindly. Lena Georgas plays Sheila, the daughter, who has somehow escaped the wrath and anger of her father, and escapes the family by entering into a (possibly bad) marriage.

The set, by Stephen Gifford, is minimal, but odd. For instance, there is a backlit image of a Christmas tree hung high above the stage to represent the time of year of the first part, which is then not quite obscured by a gauze scrim carelessly draped in front of it for the remainder of the play. The lights, by Leigh Allen, were very effective. The costumes by Kimberly Willess were quite good, although Pa’s butcher’s apron was, perhaps, a bit much.

The play is performed Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm through March 29^th, 2009.

Theatre/Theater is located at 5041 W. Pico Blvd., 2 blocks west of La Brea at Orange in Los Angeles, CA.

Ticket prices: $25.00 ($18.00 for seniors and students)

Reservations online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com or by phone at (800) 838-3006