The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 86

Tuesday, April 4, 1989 Part VI 3 Ho Angeles (Times STAGE REVIEW Ys 'SatuniayNightkver'cnjssedleanOnMe'iflMa owe Wry Dancing thrown m. And its Tibetan Inroads' Gets Lost in Its Mysticism -OmOmiBmiaum why "Tibetan Inroads" has not had many productions. It is difficult to breathe life into this organism. The highly formal, introverted style hardly allows it. The very mysteries and philosophies that must have drawn Lowe to writing the piece stand in the way of its theatricality.

Director Zara Houshmand has staged an appropriately lean and spare production, but she does not always know how to get her actors through the long speeches and often stilted exchanges in the play. The actors do their best (Iilana BTiste, Alvin Ing and Takayo Fischer are particularly effective), but too many of them are stuck portraying characters that are essentially not much more than mouthpieces. The depiction of the Chinese here, to take one example, is as stereotypical and one-dimensional as was that of the Japanese in wartime movies. Kunitomi gives the evening's strongest performance as the unhappy Dorje, a kind of Tibetan Woyczek, but even he is limited by the acutely self-conscious context of the play. Some production values deserve mention: the costumes by Abra Flores, suggestive set elements by Terry Gens, a lion mask designed by Mark O'Bryen and Nancy Fassett's choreography.

The most notable element, a subtle underscoring of events with Eastern sounds by a musician playing drums and other small percussive instruments, is uncredited. The oversight should be corrected. At 2330 Sawtelle Blvd. Thursdays through Sundays, 6 p.m., until May 21. Tickets: fl5; (213) 478-0897.

NOW PLAYING 1 1 1 1 i I 1 SCOTT ROBINSON Kunitomi in "Tibetan Inroads." wcmmwBa mmmm uiaiKKii mwwcucmmmm mtacu UACorana AMC8utiaiMI UAMimm ItMorls MmlO 47S-M41 (81K3-9eOO S942S Rjndto Cucunongi (6051255-3966 IIMMU0ElMT P149SM97 tVKTMMUE uaaL.MtiKa EownBCoran UamaManMpUu WEMH)f AMC cammrnvm (71427HI60 Caana SoCH'sCmyoiCml VclwVlMv 10 Sri PMIMMSOO (619)2414400 EmwOs Harbor Ta WtStMWIje MVEMKX WfnCOVWA Mr ii a-ra (714)H1-K01 EoranB Croon Vilty UAPirkSaira SoCasWnaM nod (714)3644120 (714)3S9K ((16)336-SS74 houtwooo paotct aotrrOAm ujihmujiowo weithmitu Paotc'iPmiiau EagkRockPba PicKic'sMaMdar MKComrarcoiai Edwards 463-3263 264-9101 (714)624-9696 (714)666-1400 CaamaWtst tT.L'.a aTOHO MMTNN0U.YW000 IAHT6MU (714)9913936 aktMKM ErtaardsSarMabtdi UAMovai AMCMwPUct W000UM MU! 1 1 (714)691-6690 016)7664317 (714)972-6600 GCC Fayook MMMWU FUUBTTtM OKI AM SANTA MU (616)347-6091 EtNorrs Wtamrxi Rjc AMChjatnaiS Paaaci Ontario 10 Edvardsrwu (916)261-0960 (714)9326000 (714)949-3299 Cnart dramas CAMOR AIKA0M SMJIAlMlaUJ MUMf (714)662-2266 Soutn Ba) Orra-M GCCSanUAna UAUoinn AMC Orange Mai SHCM6AH0AKS 6324611 (lit) 445-6200 (616)3660032 (714)637-0340 Paaftc4 CHATSW0RTN AZUUEdMisi HEM10UKACM OIXAM (616)9904140 Pact he rtwoaCarittrCMrrai AMCHannou6 PaciK iCarnagt WinnMliaOnvt-to (611969-9632 314000 Souart Edaards Viagt Cwar (til) 3494906 lAHMnCU MVI (0S 4664726 (714)6914667 MMM0UNT AMCSacMlaa Erarrh Unrara M1M KMC TMOUUWKMU PaciK (606)3244771 (714)6644611 PmnsiaaCafla9 UAMrms Rosttran Onvt-a MU 544-345 (606)494701 6344151 UAUmas) UA6 rAtA0(M TOWUUtCt UAOaAna PKODMU trnMarutpiact 904-2002 UAUaruinac drama 642-7363 Paotcs (714)529-903 UaWAOA (K) 795-1366 UNVfMUOTi FvsltOrraa tUCNAPAM PaohtsUMnitl PUOTEMUJ CntplnOrMon 946-3671 UAMmai (7141994-2400 AMCPuanaMUM UmtrUCiryCramas rrsrJTTDlN (714)9524992 (111)110-566 (61) 50456 DQ UUKAJTEA IAD UXt 0t(T0 IAa1TA IAMAAA Mpuan TraMrmnWM TownCtnnrQrwma MrisaiOamt nataOaOra Kcamaroi K05I943-262 KI9I340461I (606)541-2141 (05)6t2493( i naMman If Ml By SYLVIE DRAKE. Times Theater Writer Sexual and international politics mix in "Tibetan Inroads," which had its American pre-miere over the weekend at the Burbage Theatre in West Los Angeles, but they seldom mingle. It's like stirring a pot and finding that the ingredients won't blend. British playwright Stephen Lowe has attempted to dramatize the rape of Tibet by China in this 1981 play a particularly timely subject, considering recent rebellious events in that mountainous region but somewhere along the line he fell in love with his subject The result is a piece that lingers so lovingly on its themes and characters, and paints so romantic a picture, that it loses much of its drive. Except for the final scene, perhaps even the final speech, "Inroads" is a riddle a temperate, almost lyrical, exercise on parallel themes of violence and betrayal instead of a forceful indictment of the violence done by one nation to another.

Lowe takes the fortunes of Done (Darrell Kunitomi), a poor Tibetan blacksmith, and pits them against the fortunes of the country. Part of the parallel is Dorje's emasculation upon orders of the Buddhist abbot for having committed an act of adultery. The young Dorje emerges from that ordeal so embittered that he later welcomes the Chinese invaders, aiding them as a way of taking personal revenge on the monks and lamas responsible for his misery. Dorje's brother Tashi (Ken Ka-tsumoto) is a monk. He did not resist his own brother's castration, believing that it was a proper way to rid him of his demons.

The strife between brothers and nations becomes another parallel. Lowe's play is full of such symbolism, and considering the density NEW AGE MUSIC REVIEW DO'AH's Global Let's start with the name. The group DO' AH, according to co-leader and guitarist Randy Armstrong, is a Persian word signifying a call to prayer. A bit esoteric, perhaps, for a pop or jazz group, but, as its Sunday-night opening set at At My Place made amply clear. New Hampshire-based New Age group DO' AH has lofty aspirations most notably to blend jazz and pop with what might loosely (if somewhat inaccurately) be described as "world music." Other ensembles Eternal Winds, Don Cherry, Jan Garbarek and Milton Nascimento, to name only a few, come to mind have had similar goals.

But DO'AH (in the persons of co-leaders Armstrong and keyboardist Ken La Roche) has been pursuing its unique vision for nearly 15 years. Intrinsic to the music it has created is a huge array of instruments from around the world. La Roche's specialty, in addition to keyboards, is flutes pan flutes, bamboo flutes, pottery flutes, tin whistles and all stops in between. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS GEENA DAVIS THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST ACADiiW AWARD. mm BESTCINEilATOGRAPHER PETER BlZtOU.1 si: A COMMUMCnONt COM.

Ml 1 1) MH 1 NOW f4 W-iajT-V CMTUt? CfTT LOt UMiM AMCCMwyU CmpMlOOMK S5H900 ramu 5jiij owiiot win MKliaia NAMA COtOMA 0F wooiuci xuruDi amoooMM viwa nam mm 'NEW YORK STORIES' IS A MUST!" Three unique stories in one NEW iS HACKMAfiL STORIES Alvin Ing, standing, and Darrell of the language, the often mystical speeches and obscure agendas, it lends itself only partially to the medium of the stage. It is more literary and reflective than it is dramatic. Action is lost in words, and while the events themselves are intense human castration is as disquieting as anything can get-there is a restraint in the script and a fascination with the Eastern mind-set that rob the piece of fire. The production at the Burbage demonstrates this. It also explains Ecleticism Armstrong frequently moved from guitar to a variety of drums and the marimba-like West African bah' phon.

The other players drummer Marty Quinn, bassist Volker Nahr-mann and saxophonist Charlie Jen-nison were equally versatile, tapping, stroking, rubbing and banging on a colorful melange of unidentifiable, but clearly sound-making objects. The result of all this global eclecticism was a surprisingly accessible program of music. Unusual time signatures swept through some of the pieces, others erupted with sudden vocal inflections and modal melodies. DO'AH clearly is a group with skills and potential, but its determination to create a planetary musical message has resulted in music that is largely without identity. If and when DO'AH uses its vast resources to focus in on who and what the group really is, DO'AH just might have something very surprising, indeed.

DON HECKMAN ABCTV the face of logic and reason, there is still a place the all those whom the modern world unsettles slightly, there is 'Munchausen! And small, sturdy Sally. And, thank the Lord, Terry LOS ANGELES TIMES ADVENTURES OF Mil DAFCE BUUiJllJG mm IAHTA WOOOOUWtMXI eCCWMOOMHM cnn 1X)J-7S7I Mi UU MtDHMOVt km mil lofw M4-2IM wy special motion picture event YORK vnua tzizm sewq wccra bos-ssrcs cowu nwa OKU csaa mis lsc cdbjoeht cskcoo PLAYING UMMKa MUMMII mutit tm-mt MinaiucK umw iiiia iiMivia ta tm aaiMMa aa-Mi JaT ft. CD tatHiitftMtniHriinmmiini ht MW NMM IrmHililaaatUWrla nioiii niaiH aWtMM sl. irj- i au26 am rf joss I i uLfi liafel IujLJ mtmmmgmmmt i. uii i i im 0 "HirwoO tMILlVVOOS MMTtHfOnT MCavaaji Dm HBlfffM MK CM NMM DtaM WtlW tmAl t.

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