Just ask professor Leopold Nettles, the all-too-flawed dissident writer in Václav Havel’s “Largo Desolato.” An eerie, atmospheric staging at City Garage in Santa Monica revisits Havel’s absurdist 1986 portrait of Iron Curtain paranoia. Played with depth and nuance by Angela Beyer, Lucy represents Leopold’s only emotionally authentic option in the play’s absurdist landscape. The play’s English translation is by Havel’s fellow expat Tom Stoppard (who has labeled himself a “bounced Czech”). Stoppard respectfully curbs his own penchant for sparkling wit, remaining faithful to the play’s deliberately fractured, matter-of-fact banality of oppression. City Garage, Bergamot Station, 2525 Michigan Ave. Building T1, Santa Monica8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, through March 1$25(323) 466-3876 or www.citygarage.org 2 hours, 10 minutesSupport our coverage of local theater.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 01, 2020 23:03 UTC