
DATE: Saturday, May 3, 1997                 TAG: 9705030055

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Theater Review 
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, THEATER CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   99 lines

BECKETT'S SHORT PLAYS DEFINE ALL THAT'S GOOD ABOUT THEATER

AS I WAS LEAVING for the theater, someone asked ``Whose shorts? What kind of kinky job do you have anyway?''

Beckett's shorts. That's who. Samuel Beckett - the playwright from hell who turned despair into exhilarating groping and, somewhere in the process, won a Nobel Prize for Literature. He's been known to drive a few critics - as well as a few audiences - crazy. He's also been known to drive a few people to laughter and bitterness in the same evening. And so it is, blessedly, here.

It is somewhat ironic that the fledgling Theatre of the Millennium, making its local debut, should derive hope from a writer who dealt so predominantly with despair. Existential pondering with an emphasis on death was his realm, but in a strangely entertaining way. This is an intriguing and thoroughly adventurous evening. What, from afar, might seem like a pretentious bit of posing comes off as a fully realized examination of this perplexing writer - an evening that captures his theatricality as much as his philosophy. That, in itself, is quite an achievement.

The company wears its short shorts much better than the long trousers of the evening's finale - a seemingly interminable ``Krapp's Last Tape'' which, by any analysis, is a full-fledged one-act play.

It was produced some 20 years ago by the Experimental Wing of the Norfolk Little Theater, under the direction of Stan Fedyszyn. The wing is still there, but the experimentation is not. The actor assigned to play Krapp here is too young to suggest the weariness of an aged man listening to recordings of his sexual memories from 30 years ago.

As with all the plays, despair and loneliness are the threats as well as the exhilaration but ``Krapp's Last Tape'' is somewhat oldhat now. Meaningfully, and purposefully, these tapes have more gaps than the Nixon versions, but with quite different goals. What was the innovative Theater of the Absurd three decades ago is now more a theater of intriguing logic - but with just as many entertaining qualities.

But ``Krapp'' is a long-winded work that has more Pinter pauses than Beckett crispness. It brings the evening to a screeching halt rather than to an inspiring finale.

That aside, the preceding evening of short plays is what theater is all about - and should not be missed. You'll go home rewarded with the realization that you've been through it - and that it was both unique and rewarding.

Christopher Hanna, a director who never lets us down while at the same time never avoids a challenge, knows his Beckett and has coaxed just the right degree of eccentric sarcasm from his young cast. The company, which has been subjected to much ``pro time'' publicity because of their union status, are Old Dominion University alumni, mostly with background at StageWest, with several Actors Theater of Louisville credits.

They handle this language deftly. The acoustics in Chrysler Museum's theater are excellent, with a minimum of microphoning - the way real theater should be done.

``Play,'' the opener, consists of three talking heads, speaking from funeral urns. One male and two females make up a traditional triangle with repetitive infidelities. He says ``I took her in my arms and told her I couldn't live without her.'' But he says this about both of them - repeatedly. It is timed with the precision of a Swiss watch, with special credit to Phil Watson's lighting, which was superb throughout the evening.

In ``Act Without Words,'' an off-stage prod awakens two men in separate bags. Both, at different times, munch a carrot. The vaudeville routine of fallen trousers, mixed with a fly that won't work, prompts the two men to eventually get back in the bag.

``Not I'' features a mouth. The spotlight is only on the mouth which tells us about someone who has reached 70 and ``the long, lonely darkness.''

One play features a crippled man and a blind man who, somewhat unsuccessfully, try to help each other. Finally, one asks the other, ``Why don't you let yourself die?'' The response: ``I'm not unhappy enough.''

``Come and Go'' involves three gossip-obsessed women who pretend to be restrained - and silent. ``May we not speak of the old days,'' one pronounces while, only in twosomes do the three talk about the other.

Technically, the evening is a stand-out, particularly in lighting and staging.

Beckett, whose plays were mostly written in French, is a perfect entry into an ``international arts festival'' such as the one that is experiencing such an impressive debut. He has been largely absent from local stages, with the exception of his ``Waiting for Godot.''

The production aptly fulfills the new theater's announced goal ``to create a unique body of work which will address the universal and timeless themes of human existence.'' A lofty and wordy aim, but one avidly pursued in this evening. Will they, please, attempt Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco at some future date?

It is doubtful that Beckett, who died in 1989, is resting in peace. That would not be his nature. And yet, death is perhaps the only way many of his questions could be answered. Short of that final plunge, this unique theatrical evening is an intriguing way to pursue the same profundities. ILLUSTRATION: THEATER REVIEW

``Beckett Shorts''

What: An evening of short plays by Samuel Beckett

Who: Theatre of the Millennium, produced by Michael Curry,

directed by Christopher Hanna. Featuring Jim Cummings, Robert G.

Cui, Lori Gibbs, Susan Hightower, Amy Ingram and Terry Jernigan

Where: Chrysler Museum Theater as a part of the Virginia

Waterfront International Art Festival

When: 2 p.m. today and Sunday; 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday

How much: $10 and $15

More info: 664-6492