"The Speed of Darkness": Review (L. A. Times)

Steve Tesich is one of those rare playwrights who can handle touchy subjects like domestic violence, suicide and post-traumatic stress without sounding too much as if he were writing the movie of the week. His insightful "The Speed of Darkness" at the Tamarind is a case in point. The play teeters near gooey, but it's so finely observed that it only occasionally gets sucked into its own self-importance.

A drama about the pull of the past, "The Speed of Darkness" centers on a Vietnam vet named Joe (Andy Garrison) and his family and what happens to their home sweet home when one of Joe's old war pals shows up. Mostly though, it's about two particular skeletons in Joe's closet.

It's not that the situation or the characters are particularly original, although they are convincingly detailed. Instead, Tesich's triumph is that he makes the ordinary compelling--mostly by virtue of his economical yet naturalistic dialogue.

Ron Glass gives a standout performance in the proverbially tough role of a homeless disturbed vet. Garrison's Joe is relaxed and believable, while Scott Weinger is also convincing as Joe's daughter's boyfriend, Eddie. The two women (Shawn Weatherly, Rachael Harris) acquit themselves respectably, but they add little to their admittedly underwritten roles. Robert Spera's evenhanded, if sometimes too reverential, direction makes the play flow. But the device he uses to bridge the blackouts--a lone stagehand slowly and deliberately places an array of props every time the lights go down--quickly wears out its welcome. Or maybe it's just the New Age music playing in the background that makes it a bit irritating.

Written by JAN BRESLAUER
for The Los Angeles Times