Pedophile Catholic priests and toxic waste-dumping chemical plants form the backdrop of Yusuf Toropov’s An Undivided Heart, a Circle X. Theatre Co./Echo Theater Company World Premiere that despite occasional tonal inconsistency and lack of clarity proves a powerful indictment of church-and-corporation-sanctioned abuse.

 Once past a confusing start (a dream sequence in which a cat carcass-bearing child recites an unintelligible poem to a handsome young priest, verses that turn out after a bit of script perusing to be instructions to save the life of a doomed feline), An Undivided Heart gets down to business.

 Literary agent Max Cleary (Tim Wright) has found himself and his car locked inside a local dump and informed in no uncertain terms by its ill-tempered—and very pregnant—manager (Alana Dietze as Lynne) that the dump has closed, he should have read the sign, and if he’s stuck, it’s his business, not hers.

The trouble is, no matter Max’s insistence that he’s not “one of those Breen Chemical guys” whose toxic dumping caused Lynne’s husband’s cancer death earlier this year and the cancer her mother is currently battling, the young expectant mother is in no mood to make peace, that is until labor pains force her to open the gates and accept Max’s offer of a ride to the ER.

 Meanwhile Father Mike (Matthew Gallenstein) of the abovementioned nightmare finds himself in confrontational mode with his immediate superior Father Antonelli (Paul Eiding) about the younger priest’s refusal to hold a funeral mass for an abused little girl whose death may have prompted those recent bad dreams, and that’s even before meeting with The Cardinal (John Getz), enraged about his subordinate’s soon-to-be-published exposé of local priest sex-abuse.

 Completing the main cast of characters is Max’s Zen teacher Janice (Tracey A. Leigh), whose Buddhist philosophizing about cats in peril may make make sense to her, but went way over this reviewer’s head; Father White (Jeff Alan-Lee), Lynne’s family’s parish priest, who seems at first a genial sort of guy, though looks can be deceiving; fresh-out-of-seminary Father Keenan (Michael Sturgis), whose practice homily (“insert gospel reading here”) is not the first time this village idiot of a young cleric will provide comic relief; and a Little Girl (Ann’Jewell Lee) who’s a living ringer for the dream visitor of the play’s opening scene.

Predating Catholic Church sex abuse scandals of more recent years, An Undivided Heart’s 1992 setting makes Father Mike’s going up against church higher-ups all the more valliant, and by tying together sweep-it-under-the-carpet church officials with drink-the-water-and-be-damned corporate CEOs, playwright Toropov’s indictment of the rich and powerful is doubly gut-punching if a bit coincidental in the circumstances that link its two plot threads.

 Echo Theater Company artistic director Chris Fields directs with accustomed assurance and visual flair on scenic designer Amanda Kneehan’s striking, blood-red set, whose German expressionist angles and Mark Rothko-style abstract expressionist backdrop enhance the play’s occasional journeys into the surreal, particularly as lit with God-vs.-Satan punch by Rose Malone

Cricket S. Myer’s sound design ups the emotional impact every step of the way, with Dianne K. Graebner’s eclectic costumes, from blue-collar drab to church ornate, completing the Grade-A production design.

Gallenstein digs deep into Father Mike’s long buried traumas, once again signaling a leading man on the rise. Wright’s menschy Max and Dietze’s piss-and-vinegar Lynne are both splendid, and even more so when instant dislike finds itself transformed.

 Sharing their roles with alternate cast members*, Alison Martin’s plucky, steadfastly devout Ruth, Getz’s suitably imperious Cardinal, Alan-Lee’s creepy, squirmy Father White, and Eiding’s authoritative but understanding Father Antonelli are all terrific, with special snaps to Leigh’s warm, intelligent, grounded Janice and Sturgis’s trippy hoot of a Father Keenan, a character whose love for Tammy Wynette and James Stewart may be tonally out of sync with the rest of the play but couldn’t be more delish. Appearing at all performances, Lee needs to work on being understood.

An Undivided Heart is produced by Wright and Fields. Allen Lucky Weaver is associate producer and Kenzie Caplan and Alexander Pine are assistant producers.

Venice Yue Yang is production stage manager and Julia Hapney provides FX Make Up.

 An Undivided Heart may not be the first theatrical work to tackle issues of abuse, but it does so with undeniable power and unexpected poignancy. That it represents rarely seen inter-company collaboration makes it even more worthy of note.

*Jesse Bush, Bob Clendenin, Kaleb King, William Salyers, Jennifer A. Skinner

Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village.
www. circlextheatre.org
www.EchoTheaterCompany.com

–Steven Stanley
March 16, 2018
Photos: Darrett Sanders, Reza Allah-Bakhshi/Capture Imaging

Tags: Circle X Theatre Company, Echo Theater Company, Los Angeles Theater Review, Yusuf Toropov