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'Participant': One-man show that leaves audiences out

Momentum lost in heavy-handedness

By Jennifer Richmond

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Chazz Palminteri may be co-producing Dayton Callie's "The Participant," but there's no evidence of his influence in the acting or writing of the play.

Unlike Palminteri's intriguing "A Bronx Tale," which he wrote and starred in, "The Participant" drags, is full of clichés and goes nowhere from the start.

Well, maybe not nowhere. It takes Callie (the show's one and only actor) on a trip through his life as he discovers that being tough and fighting everyone doesn't get you anywhere. It leaves you alone and hating yourself.

Callie starts the show wonderfully with a solo on his soprano sax. It calms and soothes you and then you're hit by his New York accent telling God to turn off the spotlight so he can have some peace.

This alarming switch is perfect for the rest of the production, which goes from one sudden turn to another. Some are good and some are just plain bad. And while all have a point, like life, some points aren't needed, especially when they drag on and on with no end in sight.

When Callie rants about being a tough guy and how he always learned to just keep taking the blows in order "to be the best,'' the lesson is good the first two or three times; after that, it gets tiresome and terribly redundant.

The few spots that keep interest are Callie's stories. As soon as he gets into one of his memories ­ like the fight with Big Betty when he was in elementary school or the fight with the three men in the bar after he'd been married and divorced ­ these stories really hit home and prove Callie's point: Fighting is never the answer.

These scenes let Callie to show the type of person he is and the values with which he was raised.

These few moments of sensitivity suck us back in. Callie knows he's made some serious errors. He knows he could put his life back together if he had a second chance.

But just as he hits home with some deep thought, he throws a quick left, grabs his crotch and moans in pain as if he's been shot with fire for saying something bad in the presence of his savior.

Sudden switches like this disrupt the momentum of the production, leaving the audience in the lurch, unsure of what they're supposed to be feeling at that point in the drama.

While the idea behind the drama is great and has a few gem scenes, the entire production needs to be retooled so that it goes from point A to Z without skipping C through Y. Unfortunately, there are too many times in this production where things just don't make any sense.

Callie proves with "Participant" that while stream-of-consciousness may work in literature, it doesn't on stage.

STAGE: "The Participant." Written and Starring Dayton Callie. Directed by Jana Robbins. Co-produced by Chazz Palminteri. Running through May 23 at Theater Geo. Performing Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. TIX: $15. For more info call (213) 466-1767.

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