STAGE REVIEW : ‘Leonce, Lena’ a Bad Choice for Sledgehammer

SAN DIEGO â€”  T.S. Eliot once wrote: “Oh, do not ask, ‘What is it?’ / Let us go and make our visit.â€�

The poet might have had a similar reaction to Sledgehammer Theatre’s current production of Georg Buchner’s “Leonce and Lena,� which opened Sunday at the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage. Always intriguing, Sledgehammer Theatre productions have attained must-see status in San Diego theater.

Unfortunately, suffering from a bad choice of material, this time the company seems to have lost its direction.

Meaning plays second banana to spectacle in artistic director Scott Feldsher’s staging of “Leonce and Lena.� The problem is, the play comes across like a nonsensical poem--a broken heap of images describing incoherent subject matter. And, at 2 1/2 hours, it is long. To steal from one of Leonce’s lines, the play runs “far less than forever, but still a considerable time.�

Feldsher’s adaptation of Buchner’s 19th-Century script deals with the marriage of the title characters, Leonce and Lena. Leonce, the Prince of Popo, seeks true love but must deceive his father, King Peter of Popo, in order to marry because Leonce will become king immediately after being wed. After a series of abstract interchanges and elliptical philosophical ramblings, Leonce meets Lena, Princess of Pipi, they marry (in effigy) and Leonce becomes king.

And that’s about it. Plot, to be certain, is not the centerpiece of this play. Instead, Feldsher teases the audience by turning “Leonce and Lena� into a visual feast.

Scenic designer Robert Brill demonstrates once again that he is Sledgehammer’s most valuable asset. His manipulation of the Cassius Carter is inspired lunacy, grafting the surreal feel of a Salvador Dali painting onto the walls of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

From top to bottom, Brill’s design succeeds. By painting a meadow onto the stage floor and clouds onto the upstage flats, Brill cleverly blurs the line between interior and exterior landscapes. Otherworldly globes, rocket ships and puppets descend from the ceiling and add to the unpredictable feel of the production. In addition, trapdoors cover most of the raked stage, providing director Feldsher ample opportunity to smash convention from beneath the set.

Which he did. Gloved hands emerging intermittently through the trapdoors became startling staging devices throughout the evening. As the play opens, the hands burst out of the trapdoors and shut the books scattered across the stage. Later, just when the audience has forgotten all about the devices, hands surface, presenting flowers to Leonce and Lena at the perfect moment.

Costume designers Pam Stompoly, Eric Flaniken and Michael Mosher completed their tasks admirably, creating hilarious, Alice-in-Wonderland-on-acid costumes that add to the visual insanity. King Peter of Popo’s red, white and pink outfit managed to stop the show, forcing actor Robert Larsen to wait for the laughter to die down before delivering his first line.

Feldsher, for his part, capitalizes on the visuals. The seven actors climb above, beneath and around the stage to make bold, dramatic entrances. Expressionistic staging techniques could not save “Leonce and Lena,� however, not even with this earnest, hard-working cast. Almost immediately after an actor appears, he or she is left with the near-impossible task of creating a story where very little story exists.

A cast of local San Diego actors makes every effort, and at times, they seem just on the verge of a breakthrough. Michael Schwarz interprets Leonce with utmost sincerity and passion, but his deadpan delivery of several lengthy existential speeches gradually grows monotonous. The character of Leonce, a parody of Hamlet, was not blessed with the graceful poetry Shakespeare wrote for the Dane.

Susan Gelman’s Lena came across better, and, despite the limited framework of her character, she breathes life into her Betty Boop-ish reading of the part. Still, a lack of detail within the script eclipsed the potential for true character development.

Sledgehammer veteran Todd O’Keefe went furthest in creating a compelling story line for his character. O’Keefe’s take on the Puck-like manservant Valerio gave the physically adept actor opportunity to experiment with a multitude of voices, postures and caricatures.

But too many such devices seemed necessary throughout this effort. Despite yeoman effort and obvious talent, the cast and crew eventually succumb to the considerable weaknesses of the script.

“LEONCE AND LENA�

By Georg Buchner. Translated by H.P. Taubman. Adapted by Scott Feldsher. Director, Scott Feldsher. Set, Robert Brill. Costumes, Pam Stompoly, Eric Flaniken and Michael Mosher. Lighting, Keoni Ayers, Diane Boomer and Robert Brill. Sound, Pea Hicks. Stage manager, Elizabeth Walter. With Michael Schwarz, Kevin Mann, Todd O’Keefe, Robert Larsen, Michelle Bonnicksen, Susan Gelman, Paty Sipes and Michael Hummel. At 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday, with 2 p.m. matinees Dec. 2 and 9. Tickets are $6-15. At the Old Globe Theatre’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage, Balboa Park.