LOS
ANGELES TIMES
January
23, 2004
THEATER
BEAT
Sometimes,
because theater is a live medium in which we're sharing the very air with the
performers, a play can get under our skin--and make it crawl--in ways not even
the creepiest B movie can hope to achieve.
Take
Justina Walford's "Haunt," if you dare. This aimless series of
blackout scenes depicts hapless twentysomethings wallowing in drug-addled
anomie in a Hollywood apartment complex; it is performed by young hopefuls at
the Complex in Hollywood.
The
drama here, such as it is, emerges not from the faltering play itself but from
the soul-sucking experience of spending nearly two hours so close to genuine
desperation and unwitting embarrassment.
We
can feel deep, palpable confusion in every moment of lead actress Andrea
Edmondson's performance as Risa, a young woman fleeing some kind of family
crisis only to land in an apartment haunted by Jen (Thesy Surface), a gaunt
heroin addict who recently died there. But Edmondson is a model of clarity next
to her supporting players: the aptly named Surface, who makes a particularly
un-supernatural ghost; the charming but unschooled Wai Ying-Tsang as a
substance-peddling neighbor and the earnest, plodding Ethan Ubell as a dull
would-be boyfriend.
These
actors, if not their characters, are often at such cross-purposes onstage it's
almost fascinating to watch. Perhaps director David Lee (not the one from
"Frasier") mistook this strange muddle for a bold theatrical choice;
instead, after our mild fascination wears off, it's just depressing. The
misbegotten "Haunt" is indeed haunting, but for all the wrong
reasons.
--Rob Kendt
"Haunt," Split.Id Theater @ the Complex, 6470 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 21. $10. (323) 462-2662. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.