Lucia Mad

In "Lucia Mad," playwright Don Nigro looks at what might have happened had Lucia Joyce (Meg Wallace), daughter of Irish writer James Joyce (Ian Patrick Williams), fallen madly in love with dour and deeply pessimistic Samuel Beckett (Robert Ross), the writer's assistant and later the author of "Waiting for Godot." He's incapable of returning her love, and the rejection drives the already unstable young woman into madness—but it's a madness colored by her eccentric wit and fanciful notions. She stalks him relentlessly, but he remains sternly elusive. It's not entirely clear how much of this is rooted in fact and how much is Nigro's invention.

It's a fascinating tale probably best appreciated by those with a basic knowledge of Irish literature, particularly the works of Joyce and Beckett. When, toward the play's end, Lucia proclaims that she is Anna Livia Plurabelle, it won't mean much unless one is at least vaguely acquainted with Joyce's linguistically adventurous—some might say impenetrable—novel "Finnegans Wake." Nigro is erudite, but his attitude toward his characters seems curiously ambivalent, sometimes regarding the great writers as amiable lunatics and sometimes as masters of their craft.

The play is engrossing for much of its length—as Lucia grows madder, declares that Beckett is going to marry her, rebels against her father's overprotective love, and becomes a patient of Swiss psychotherapist Carl Jung (Kenn Schmidt). Ultimately, however, Nigro's dwelling on Lucia's manias and Beckett's guilt-ridden but unwavering refusals begins to seem self-indulgent. Their relationship is stubbornly static, and the action comes to a screeching halt.

Director Steve Jarrard makes much of the production palatable by mining the comedy in the script, which is considerable, and the cast does excellent work all around. Wallace finds the charm as well as the logic in the calculating but irrational Lucia and makes her madness credible. Ross captures Beckett's spiky-haired appearance as well as his emotional remoteness, making his extreme nature believable. Williams' Joyce combines bumbling absent-mindedness with an edge of ruthlessness, and Pamela Daly scores comic points as his commonsensical wife, trying to cope with a houseful of nut cases. Schmidt strives to overcome the limitations of his brief, underdeveloped role as Jung; Quincy Miller plays the slightly philistine friend McGreevy; and Dan McNamara doubles as a violence-prone pimp and a lunatic who shares Lucia's asylum.

Presented by Collaborative Artists Ensemble at the Sherry Theatre, 11052 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. Oct. 22–Nov. 21. Fri.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m. (323) 860-6569 or www.plays411.com/luciamad.