THEATER REVIEW : ‘Goose’: Faust Legend Takes Flight in Modern L.A.

There have been many incarnations of the Faust legend, but none brushes as close to home as Rik Pagano’s “Goose Amid the Revolt.”

*

This poetic concoction, currently playing late nights at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, takes its inspiration from four social implosions of the late 20th Century: the financial excesses of the ‘80s, the L.A. riots, the film industry’s extravagant lifestyles and the exploding homeless population. The result is a forceful, strangely theatrical play in unrhyming, unmetered verse that, like it or not, makes one sit up and take notice.

Why is not entirely clear. The piece, after all, is guilty of obviousness and some easy moralism, especially in some expendable closing speeches. It is a doomsday piece that stretches over the three-day period encompassing Halloween, All Saints’ Day and the Mexican Day of the Dead (how’s that for symbolism?). It has good guys and bad guys, and you can predictably tell who will be which. The versifying is always vigorous--no Hallmark cards here--but often too dense for the medium of theater, which does not give a listener the luxury of time to reflect.

Yet, because of a sharp company of actors and the swirling, movable production that director Charlie Otte has built around the text, “Goose’s” revolutions--in all meanings of the word--mount a strong assault upon our senses.

This latest twist on the Faustian story has a street man named Monk Bob (Ryan Cutrona) as the devil who tries to bargain for the soul of an easy prey named Goose (Bruce Wright). Goose is a silly one, all right: A crass, handsome, upwardly mobile businessman with a thirst for wealth and self-importance that makes him fall for the brass ring dangled by Monk Bob.

So dazzled is Goose by the peacock glamour of supersuccess that he falls for a catastrophic scheme involving a false prophet named Krishna (Kris) MacTash (Jeff Doucette), a luscious blonde named Nadine (Robin McKee) and the slaking, at enormous societal expense, of all his material needs. While Los Angeles burns, wounded by rounds of AK-47 fire, Goose recants and tries to worm out of the deal he made with Bob.

Whether he does or whether it matters is not the ultimate point of this play, based on a series of poems Pagano wrote in 1988-89. You’ll find a purpose and a dark and cynical perspective lurking in all of its recesses, but nothing new in its outcome. Which is another way of saying that the uncommon process of this piece is more significant and interesting than its message.

One might, in fact, argue the morality of an outcome in which the world at large is punished for the greed/deed of a single man who emerges remarkably unscathed; but isn’t that precisely the result that Pagano is after?

The credit for the play’s ability to hold us despite the odds finally rests chiefly with Pagano, who, aside from creating the muscular words, is listed as associate director. Aided by the haunting, acrid snatches of music by Karl Lundeberg, Pagano and Otte have kept the stage uncluttered, the movement fluid and as lucid as possible in a play that can be confusing if only for the sheer intellectual density of the language and the swiftness of the pace at which it moves.

*

Doucette, Cutrona, Wright and McKee are commanding actors who can do no wrong, but this is an ensemble piece. The other members of the handpicked company, some of whom play many roles, are crucial to its success, and not just because they can speak the words as they require to be spoken.

For the record, the cast includes Michelle Clunie, David Dunard, Will Kepper, Timothy Lawrence, Ilana Levine, Gregory Millar, Michael Ornstein, Victor Rivers, Christine Sang (who also choreographs) and Daniel Dean Scott.

“Goose Amid the Revolt” is a genuine experiment in a tumbling post-Apocalyptic modern verse that may not be to everyone’s taste. Its credentials as a stage piece remain shaky, but its challenge offers a special and ultimately rewarding experience, even if all of its finer points do not register with the viewer at one sitting.

* “Goose Amid the Revolt,” Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Fridays-Saturdays, 10 p.m. Ends Dec. 19. $15; (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.