On Stage: Plays ponder life, death and beyond

Granted, a theater is not a laboratory and playwright Caryl Churchill is not a geneticist/sociologist. But she does make a good case for environment as opposed to chromosomes, nurture as opposed to nature, in her cunning little one-hour play "A Number." For Churchill, social and psychological factors are everything. Heredity is nothing.

Churchill posits three men, Bernard one, Bernard two and Michael Black -- all of whom have the same genetic makeup. Bernard one is a psychotic sociopath. Bernard two is a fretful neurotic. And Michael Black is a well-adjusted, pleasant, congenial, humorous, positive-minded nice guy.

Bernard one's mother committed suicide when he was 2. He was neglected and abused by a father who lived in an alcoholic haze. After age 4, Bernard was apparently brought up in foster homes. When the father sobered up, he was contrite and lonely. He somehow got enough cells from Bernard one to have scientists clone Bernard two. Bernard two's early years were not as nightmarish as Bernard one's. But growing up with that guilt-ridden father who had messed up with his first son and wanted a second chance was inauspicious.

Meanwhile, those crafty scientists who had a tissue sample from Bernard one to work with cloned about 20 baby boys and offered them for adoption. One of these infants was Michael Black. We don't know anything about Michael's upbringing. But at least he had no contact with his creepy biological father. And he turned out great.

That's the skeleton version of "A Number." Churchill fleshes it out with emotionally nuanced dialogue and incident.

Director John Kazanjian's production of "A Number" at ACT Theatre is spare but effective. Kevin Tighe is devious and pathetic as the father. Peter Crook plays all three sons (brothers? DNA cognates?). Crook is a virtuoso. Through diction, posture, gesture and movement he gives distinctive renderings of the fretful neurotic, the psychotic sociopath and the well-adjusted, pleasant, congenial, humorous, positive-minded nice guy.

"A Number" runs through Oct. 1. Tickets are $10 (for students and people 25 and under) to $54. Various discounts are available. ACT is a 700 Union St.; 206-292-7676 or www.acttheatre.org

(Just Like) Starting Over Every now and then someone in a theater will yell, "Is there a doctor in the house?!" -- meaning that a medical emergency is taking place. As "(Just Like) Starting Over" creeps into its second hour, someone might justifiably jump up and yell, "Is there an editor in the house?!" -- meaning that a dramaturgical emergency is taking place.

"Starting Over" is a new play by a new playwright, Steven Roseta. It is having its premiere at the Bathhouse Theatre. It needs ruthless editing.

Roseta is a Microsoft veteran, now retired. He has included some effective material and some tedious material in his play, which deals with the final hours of John Lennon's life.

Roseta creates an interview format. A radio journalist is supposedly talking to Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, in their New York apartment. On the plus side are exuberant moments in which Lennon speaks of devastation and exaltation. The devastation comes when he realizes that he needs, absolutely needs, Ono. The exaltation comes with a recollection of visiting Scotland's heather-covered hills as a boy and vibrating with the beauty before him.

Also effective is an epiphany in Hong Kong when Lennon was suffused with well-being and self-acceptance.

On the draggy side are long stretches of theory and opinion, preaching and prophecy, tirades about "The Media," "The Politicians," "The System" and "Love, Love, Love."

Also "Starting Over" is not dramatic. There is no conflict and no resolution. It's all exposition and character.

As Lennon, David Natale contributes measureless bouncy humor and urgency. Naho Shioya, as Ono, balances Natale's vitality with reserve and formality, punctuated by moments of intellectual and emotional sparkle. Brian Upton, as the journalist, is stuck with the colorless role of feeding questions -- "What do you think about this?" or "What do you think about that?" -- to release revelations or tirades.

"(Just Like) Starting Over" runs at the Bathhouse Theatre, 7312 W. Green Lake Drive N., Through Sept. 17. Tickets are $14-$24; 206-524-1300 or www.seattlepublictheater.org

Bridge of San Luis Rey The Strawberry Theatre Workshop takes a unique approach to playcrafting. The company's work is meditative. Its productions are like rituals. Live actors and intricate puppets join in a form of storytelling that is essentially a ceremony -- sometimes mournful, occasionally funny and always attuned to the dignity and worth of human beings.

"The Bridge of San Luis Rey," the Workshop's current production, is a meditation on catastrophe and loss. It is a stage adaptation of a 1928 novel by Thornton Wilder that explores the repercussions of an accident that took place in Peru in 1714. A rope bridge spanning a ravine collapsed. Five travelers were killed.

Workshop artistic director Greg Carter' adaptation of Wilder's story has 9/11 resonances. Released from political agendas and opportunism, loss is presented in strictly human terms. Singer/guitarist Rick Miller underscores themes of grief and devotion. He includes poignant selections from Bruce Springsteen's post-9/11 song cycle "The Rising."

The five Peruvians who died in the 1714 accident are represented by puppets. Puppet designer Katie Hansen's work has an iconic quality. She portrays a rich, clever and irascible old woman, a young nun who is the woman's companion, a suicidal orphan boy, a picaresque man-about-town and a sickly youth who is the rogue's protégé. Actors Timothy Hyland, Tracy Repep, Amy Thone, Hana Lass and John Farrage give voices to the puppets. They also portray dozens of people whose lives intersected and intertwined with those of the five victims.

Sometimes Wilder's writing and Carter's adaptation are ponderous. Repeated pronouncements about "love" sound hollow. Also the show's basic narrative is wispy with loose ends. The jumble of characters and incidents is not tidy.

But as a uniquely ceremonious form of storytelling, director Sheila Daniels' production of "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" is engaging. Particularly effective is a sort of sacristy lighting -- candles, amber sidelights, long shadows -- by Robert. J Aguilar.

"The Bridge of San Luis Rey" runs through Oct. 8 at Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave. Tickets are $15-$20, pay what you can Thursdays, 800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com.

Hogwash "Hogwash" is a kids' show that "tells stories that have never been told before and never will be told again." In other words, "Hogwash" is improv comedy for the 3-12 set.

The production debuted Saturday at the Historic University Theater. The six actors solicit audience suggestions. For the first "never before and never again" tale the cast was given the color orange and cats and spiders to deal with. The second act dealt with "a rock" and "slimy."

The Hogwashers were pretty adept at establishing situation, conflict and resolution with the help of a four-man band and an artist who creates instant props with the help of paper plates and poster cardboard. Audience participation included imitating scary trees, participating on stage in a limbo session, playing "dinosaur egg, dinosaur egg, who's got the dinosaur egg?" and imitating spider sounds (some imagination required).

Villains -- the guy who means to abolish Halloween or the guy who steals his cousin's birthday party invitation -- were definitely the audience favorites when he came to giggles, boos and hisses.

The stories were pretty simple and, at times, incoherent, but the mainly 7-and-under audience didn't seem to mind at all.

If you go, arrive a bit early if you want a woman with two-tone pink hair to give your kid a free face paint design.

"Hogwash" plays Saturdays at 2 p.m. at the HUT, 5510 University Way N.E., through Oct. 28. Tickets are $10, discounts available; 206-297-1767 or www.hogwashtime.com

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