Triptych Falters Under Weight of Literary Cliches

Because Steven Levi’s triptych of a play, “Cherry Soda Water,” is unashamedly literary, it’s also open about literary roots. Its California coastal town setting and hard-bitten people are directly from John Steinbeck, which is a strength. Levi’s taste for having characters launch into florid speech and melodramatic displays is straight from Tennessee Williams, which gets to be a problem.

At least it is for the Chandler Studio Theatre Company, which delivers a typically strong, stripped-down and actor-driven production--this time directed by Christopher Crabb. But the cast can’t rise above this play’s unsubtle way with tragedy. Plays by Chandler founder Michael Holmes, such as “Ryder,” dive headlong into tragedy as well, but with a much bigger splash.

It almost feels as if Levi is deliberately dealing with some of melodrama’s mustiest cliches, trying to revive them in some fresh, vital way. First, there’s “Cherry and Little Banjo,” about two teens--Allegra Growdon as the fetching Cherry and Addison Parker as the vulnerably awkward Little Banjo--who flee their tawdry family lives in search of a better life by the seaside and perhaps with each other.

“Red Roses for My Lady” shows us Little Banjo’s unhappy home, where his aspiring banjo-playing father, Picker Bleu (Brian O’Halloran), is trying to land an audition in Los Angeles without his alcoholic wife, Sally Sue (Diana Angelina) finding out.

Levi rounds out his trilogy with “The Gulf of Crimson,” in which Cherry’s hooker mother, Cracker Jack (Julie Proudfoot), deals with the appearance of long-gone Sailor (Holmes, making a rare onstage appearance), Cherry’s father. Sailor wants to see Cherry once before his quickly failing heart gives out. Cracker will let him, but only if he promises to stay and support the family.

Levi is after an intimate epic, but melodrama keeps getting in the way. It least affects the budding teen lovers, whom Growdon and Parker suggest with real charm are true innocents in a world of cheating, betrayal and self-loathing. These kids may have some kind of future, even though Cherry’s penchant for fantasies--a trait she’s gotten from the father she’s never met--feels like the basis for a life of disappointments.

Their parents spend the rest of the play searching for them, suggesting that the kids have run away for good. But the clash between Sally and Picker collapses into a turgid, homicidal frenzy, and actors Angelina and O’Halloran seem confused and hemmed in by the woozy writing.

Holmes and Proudfoot, by contrast, are actors fully in tune with their characters’ passion-filled back story. When they embrace, the pent-up energy is unexpectedly sexy and magnificent.

They’re like colliding, uncommon atoms--him, sea-drenched, bearded and aging; her, musky and clad in a thin, satin nightgown. It’s in their scenes that the Tennessee Williams legacy comes through honestly.

Yet even this meeting ends with a flourish of poetic longing that feels forced and unearned. (At least Levi has the wisdom to not have Sailor die of a heart attack.)

“Cherry Soda Water” is a good test for actors, which is probably why this company selected it, but it fails the test of good playwriting. More tests are coming up at this interesting theater, which happily is planning Holmes’ next play this fall.

DETAILS

* WHAT: “Cherry Soda Water.”

* WHERE: Chandler Studio Theatre, 12443 Chandler Blvd., North Hollywood.

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 2.

* HOW MUCH: $12.50.

* CALL: (818) 908-4094.