Burn This

The Mark Taper Forum has revived the late Lanford Wilson's Burn This, giving the play (which it premiered back in 1987) a solid and satisfying production. Director Nicholas Martin, following in the footsteps of Marshall W. Mason, has put together an admirable cast, led by Adam Rothenberg as Pale and Zabryna Guevara as Anna. These two unlikely lovers, one an arty dancer, the other a loutish restaurant manager, are joined on stage by Ken Barnett as Burton, a cynical screenwriter, and by Brooks Ashmanskas as Larry, Anna's gay loft-mate.

Burn This is very much a vehicle for the Pale character, a gun-toting, greasy-haired, raging-bull of a man who inexplicably falls for Anna, and vice versa. John Malkovich first played the part and made it his, but Rothenberg manages to rise to the competitive challenge and bring Pale to life in his own quirky but effective way.

Guevara is a good foil for Rothenberg, not only matching his anger and neuroticism at key dramatic moments but bringing out Anna's sensitive and sensual qualities, as well. Ashmanskas gets big laughs with his campy jokes and behavior, and Barnett is properly virile and forthright in his role as the third side of the love triangle.

Burn This suffers from an excess of exposition in the first act and from its messy, sprawling storytelling, but its portrait of two wounded souls desperately reaching out to each other still has the power to move.