Giant steely flats surround the stage, covered in torn strips of metal screen, mesh, shower curtain, and globs of paint. Colored light occasionally pours in from behind cutouts. Eric Hugunin's expressionist set serves as a compelling visual depiction of the shadowy mental world of murderer Roberto Zucco. It also serves as a tidy metaphor for the problems with this play, in which striking flashes of brilliance illuminate an otherwise confused and grey affair.
Bernard Marie-Koltes' script (in a translation by Martin Crimp) attempts a strange tonal combination of offhanded humor and dramatic possibility. We first enter a world where prison guards stand around, lament their lack of a raison d'être (hats off to Jim Kieffer for a fantastically funny delivery), and ponder the variety of penises in this world.
Then things get dark. Roberto Zucco (Patrick Tuttle) escapes from prison after killing his father. He offs his mother and flees, possibly to kill again. As Zucco, Tuttle has his work cut out for him. At times, his eyes dart around expressively like a silent film actor; at other times he seems to be stretching towards an almost filmic naturalism that feels like an odd choice, though perhaps one suggested by the script or by director Russell Milton. Indeed a central concern of the piece seems to be that, though a murderer, Zucco is no more twisted than the unrepentantly abusive folks around him. Compared to the other weirdos we meet, he seems positively affable. After strangling his mother, he lies down next to her in one of the more touching moments in the play.
After Zucco's escape, he turns up at a troubled household. Having captured the heart of an indeterminately young girl, and possibly taken her virginity, he establishes a kind of tender intimacy with this otherwise beaten-down young woman. As the girl, Jennifer Pennington is an inspired casting choice, as are the actors who portray her monstrously messed-up family. There is her abusive spinster of a sister (a chilling Andrea Fears), volatile brother (Aaron Lyons), drunken father who staggers across the stage for a beer now and then (Weston Blakesley), and zombie-like mother (Jacque Lynn Colton).
Another plot twist involves a fabulously costumed (Van Broughton Ramsey) but dramatically uninteresting brothel in "Little Chicago" that Zucco visits. Finally we have a showdown in a park where Zucco attempts to kidnap an "elegant lady" (played viciously by the talented Michelle Haner) for her Porsche, and finds her a willing victim. Michael Resnick's subtle but effective sound design gives us trains, crickets, and "Gnossienes" by Satie. In the end, however, a number of great choices do not add up to a great production.
"Roberto Zucco," presented by and at Open Fist Theatre, 1625 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood. Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. June 4-July 17. $18. (323) 882-6912.