Strength Has Last Word in ‘Talking’

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — There’s a certain resilience to Jane Martin’s “Talking With . . . ,” which has been revived too many times to count (and which premiered in Los Angeles about a decade ago at Taper Too). It hasn’t aged like so many other 1980s plays, even though it’s extremely vulnerable to casting miscalculations.

That’s because Martin (who many believe is a nom de plume for Actors’ Theatre of Louisville founder Jon Jory) has constructed a work of gallery theater in which 11 highly individual women speak to us about their lives. The writing goes far, but casting is key.

Casting by director B.J. Scott at the Camino Real Playhouse is usually smart. Though she pulls some punches on the play’s more exotic touches, Scott seems to have gone out of her way to find actors who exude sinew, animality, eroticism or madness--whatever is called for.

Martin’s women are often damaged people, but they refuse to be victims. Yet this is no simple feminist self-esteem pump-up job. Instead, it is a multifaceted look into female souls that are at ease with life’s mysteries in ways that few men ever could be.

April (Della Lisi) is a cheerleader twirler who’s found a direct connection to God through her baton. Aging Lila (Diane T. Rose) senses her life fading and is obsessed with the glow and play of flashlights. Caro (Janet Lee) is a religious snake handler who now doubts God’s existence. Alain (Sherryl Wynne) has entered an intense life of sex and tattoos. These aren’t women we can brush off.

Yet some of the more conventional women are vehicles for some of the strongest performances.

Deborah Conroy’s Moira, an actor readying before curtain, is the stage artist through and through--a kind of auto-portrait by one honest performer about another. Kerene Cogan--in a stunningly serene and sad portrayal--is Laurie, a grieving daughter describing her proud mother’s gradual decline into death. Mariyah Montae’s tough-minded Big Eight is a rodeo rider whose disgust at her sport’s creeping commercialism feels like a metaphor for a declining America.

The “Talking With . . .” gallery balances fringies--such as Wynne’s come-hither sexual creature--with women we might run into any day of the week.

Lee feels almost possessed around her crate of snakes and makes us see them even though this staging chooses not to show any. Rose suggests the distillation of old age without any pathos. Barbara Hollis’ homeless Anna Mae never comes across like let’s-pretend destitution.

Of the women teetering toward madness, Lisi’s twirler is most in touch with her character’s inner mystery.

Other madwomen are mishandled here.

Lennie DeCaro as Scraps, a housewife who dreams of the Land of Oz, is emotionally shallow. Vitina Napoli’s deranged auditioning actor is stuck on one yammering vocal tone. Though hardly mad, Rhen Kohan’s woman in labor is not nearly angry nor sweaty enough for having been in serious contractions for 23 hours.

Scott’s staging generally delivers the play’s sometimes hypnotic qualities while avoiding preciousness. “Talking With . . .” remains notably tough under the skin and tends to bring out a daring survivability in the women who play it.

* “Talking With . . . ,” Camino Real Playhouse, 31776 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4 p.m. Ends Feb. 1. $10. (714) 489-8082. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

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“Talking With . . . ,”

Deborah Conroy: Moira

Lennie DeCaro: Scraps

Kerene Cogan: Laurie

Della Lisi: April

Vitina Napoli: Mary

Mariyah Montae: Big Eight

Diane T. Rose: Lila

Janet Lee: Caro

Rhen Kohan: Marti

Barbara Hollis: Anna Mae

Sherryl Wynne: Alain

A South Orange County Community Theatre production of Jane Martin’s play. Directed by B.J. Scott. Lights: Phil Blandin.