A moving 'drive'

Disturbing plot made memorable by powerful performances

Friday, September 14, 2007

In her character description for Peck in How I Learned to Drive, playwright Paula Vogel writes, "He should be played by an actor one might cast in the role of Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Just in case you weren't sure that Paul Borrillo gives an ideal performance as the tormented, pedophiliac uncle in Vogel's play, consider how he soared in the role of Atticus Finch in 2000 at the Arvada Center, a year after first playing Peck at Curious Theatre Company.

Now, in celebration of the company's 10th season, Curious is restaging How I Learned to Drive, with most of the original company (Michael Morgan replaces Brett Aune; Marcus Waterman will step in for Borrillo beginning Thursday).

Vogel's time-jumping story is told by Li'l Bit, an adult woman looking back at her 1960s childhood as a bookish girl with big breasts stuck in a family only interested in the latter. Her sole communion as a child is with her encouraging, sympathetic Uncle Peck. Their relationship both blossoms and putrefies into something else.

C. Kelly Leo is now 10 years older, a far more appropriate age to play Li'l Bit. Aided by lighting designer Richard Devin, Leo appears sharp, commanding and adult in her narrative scenes, the light glinting off the planes of her face. Her body seems to soften as she slides into a more malleable self from ages 11 to 18.

Leo convincingly plays a drunk 16-year-old, a petulant youth and, most disturbingly, the 11-year-old sitting on her uncle's lap. The youth still in her face keeps us more rooted in the past, rather than seeing the distance between youth and adulthood. Her adult scenes are too full of bitterness; they would be more effective if director Chip Walton left us to imagine more of her inner workings.

Borrillo absorbs his role and the audience as well. In just over 90 minutes, he traverses an arc of dissolution. In his first scenes with Leo he is, as unpleasant as it sounds, seductive. His Uncle Peck is thoughtful and listens carefully to Li'l Bit; even his gestures are sensual. The act is reprehensible; the action is entrancing.

As the play progresses, though, we get glimpses into his quiet torments: the Pacific war that left him an alcoholic and his quiet battle to overcome it; his afternoon fishing with a young cousin; and his downfall into a pathetic old man in his last meeting with Li'l Bit.

A three-person Greek chorus fills in the story, although, at least in this production, they feel more like actors playing multiple roles than a chorus commenting on the action. Melanie Owen Padilla is richly funny but also realistic as Li'l Bit's grandmother. Michael Morgan plays her lecherous Grandfather Without Borders as well as a disapproving waiter. Denise Perry- Olson brings riotous laughter with A Mother's Guide to Social Drinking, then leaves us shaken as Aunt Mary explains just what she understands about Uncle Peck and how she feels about Li'l Bit.

A massive lit-up sign advertising the drive-in hangs over a set anchored by Uncle Peck's car. Designed by Richard Finkelstein, it suggests the wide-open spaces of rural Maryland and how one could get lost in them. Costumes by Janice Benning Lacek and Emilee Cooper accentuate character and Li'l Bit's physique, a topic of conversation, while Brian Freeland chooses appropriate period songs all the more upsetting for their banality.

How I Learned to Drive may stick with you for a while. I found myself a bundle of nerves after the performance, and as I ponder the reaction, I realize that the romance in this wrong relationship is the part that chills. I'm disturbed because I'm not more disturbed.

How I Learned to Drive

? Grade: A-

? When and where: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays at Curious Theatre Company, 1080 Acoma St.

? Cost: $13 to $32

? Information: 303-623-0524