Continuing on Broadway

Sympathetic Magic

(Opened April 16, 1997, at the McGinn-Cazalle Theater. Reviewed April 15; 108 seats; $40.)

By GREG EVANS

A Second Stage Theater presentation of a play in two acts by Lanford Wilson. Directed by Marshall W. Mason.
 
David Bishins (Ian Anderson), Jeff McCarthy (Don Walker), Ellen Lancaster (Barbara De Biers), Herb Foster (Carl Conklin White), David Pittu (Pauly Scott), Dana Millican (Susan Olmsted), Tanya Berezin (Liz Barnard), Jordan Mott (Mickey Picco).
 

Lanford Wilson's "Sympathetic Magic" is set in San Francisco, obsessed with the cosmos and at home in neither. An odd work that strains to link the personal with the galactic, "Magic" conjures up some haunting moments but never casts a cohesive spell.

Directed by Wilson's longtime collaborator Marshall W. Mason (who is, not surprisingly, in sync with the writer's quirky rhythms and moods), "Magic" follows a group of Frisco friends and family as they confront various personal crises --- an unwanted pregnancy, marital strife, AIDS --- against the backdrop of some vaguely mystical discovery of astronomical (literally) proportions.

Lanford Wilson's "Sympathetic Magic" is set in San Francisco, obsessed with the cosmos and at home in neither. An odd work that strains to link the personal with the galactic, "Magic" conjures up some haunting moments but never casts a cohesive spell.

Directed by Wilson's longtime collaborator Marshall W. Mason (who is, not surprisingly, in sync with the writer's quirky rhythms and moods), "Magic" follows a group of Frisco friends and family as they confront various personal crises --- an unwanted pregnancy, marital strife, AIDS --- against the backdrop of some vaguely mystical discovery of astronomical (literally) proportions.

Ian Anderson (David Bishins) is a young college astronomy prof whose lifelong devotion to star-gazing is about to make him famous: He, along with friend and colleague Mickey (Jordan Mott), discover an oddity --- indeed, an impossibility --- among the reams of mathematical data generated by pictures of a galaxy far, far away. Have they discovered some sort of parallel universe?

Maybe, maybe not. The play, which has a few scenes that could have been lifted from a sci-fi melodrama, uses the cosmological musings mostly as symbolic reflections of the characters' all-too-human interactions. Ian's live-in girlfriend, Barbara (Ellen Lancaster), is a promising sculptor whose pregnancy dredges up her at-best ambivalent feelings about motherhood --- no wonder, given her own mother, Liz (Tanya Berezin), a caustic, foul-mouthed anthropologist who seems to annoy everyone in her vicinity.

Barbara's pregnancy, or rather her decision to abort, reveals a rift in her relationship with Ian, a rift that ultimately explodes (unconvincingly) in violence. On hand to watch are the satellite characters that circle the couple. In addition to Mickey and Liz, they are Barbara's stepbrother, Don (Jeff McCarthy), an Episcopalian priest who's given up his gay lover for celibacy and wine; Pauly (David Pittu), the ex-lover, a kind soul who crumbles into tears when the going gets rough; Susan (Dana Millican), Liz's young, outspoken assistant; and Carl (Herb Foster), Ian's esthete dean not above playing God when it comes to taking credit for the new heavenly discoveries.

The characters philosophize about any number of things, the play being of the sort in which someone will expound upon a scientific theorem that carries more symbolic weight than the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigolds. After the anthropologist discusses "sympathetic magic" --- tribal rituals in which the sound of rain, for example, is mimicked in order to bring about actual rain --- it's only a matter of time before Barbara tells Ian, "We act out good partnerships ... believing it will cause good partnerships."

If such obvious devices are far too earthbound, the play does occasionally take flight. Wilson's fascination with the cosmos approaches the poetic, a nice counterbalance to his prickly (sometimes awkwardly so) dialogue.

In this production, some of the cast members take to the beat of Wilson's dialogue better than others. Bishins and Berezin, as the astronomer and anthropologist, respectively, fare best, while Millican (the assistant) and Foster (the dean) struggle with underwritten characters --- the latter is the type of fussbudget boss best left to Lucille Ball sitcoms.

John Lee Beatty's spare, sand-colored set is matched by the beige-and-white Banana Republic fashions of Laura Crow's costumes --- an unrelenting color coordination that reflects both the play's appealing eccentricity and the strain taken to achieve it.

Set, John Lee Beatty; costumes, Laura Crow; lighting, Dennis Parichy; sound, Chuck London; original music, Peter Kater; production stage manager, Denise Yaney.
Running time: 2 HOURS, 20 MIN.