Wilson's 'Burn This' is heated drama

NEW YORK, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The premiere of Lanford Wilson's "Burn This" on Broadway in 1987 cinched John Malkovich's claim to stardom, and the present Off Broadway revival of the play at the Union Square Theater is doing the same thing for the career of film actor Edward Norton.

Norton received Oscar nominations for his performances in "American History X" and "Primal Fear," is at present starring in "Red Dragon," and will soon be seen in Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour." He has produced and directed "Keeping the Faith" and written the screenplay for "Frida," based on the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Now he has returned to the stage after an absence of eight years in the Signature Theater Company's "Burn This" in the role of Pale, the most volatile character ever conceived by Wilson in any of his 17 plays and more than 30 one-acts. Malkovich played Pale as a frightening, long-haired lunatic, but Norton has his anti-hero more under control, expositing the desperation that lurks beneath the man's defiant surface.

Pale is the manager of a two-star restaurant in New Jersey who snorts coke and revels in profanity. His wife has left him and taken their two children to live in Florida. His younger brother, Robbie, a ballet dancer, has perished in a boating accident with a boyfriend, and Pale has met the girl with whom his brother shared a New York apartment at the funeral.

The curtain rises as the girl, a professional dancer and choreographer named Anna, returns to the converted loft apartment after the exasperating experience of having been treated like Robbie's girlfriend by his family at the funeral. She and another gay apartment-mate, an ad man named Larry who also attended the funeral, are positive that Robbie's family didn't know he was homosexual.

Enter a wired-up Pale to collect his brother's clothing and possibly to see more of Anna. In the course of a hyper tirade that reveals his emotional neediness and inner pain, he disabuses Anna and Larry of the idea that his family was in the dark about Robbie's sexual preferences. It is something that people of his blue-collar class simply do not talk about, he explains, even if they admit it to themselves.

The arrival of the fourth member of the cast, Burton, a handsome screenwriter with inherited money, draws Pale up shot. Burton has had a long, comfortable romance with Anna and finally asks her to marry him as a matter of course. But it is apparent the heat has gone out of their affair and that Anna just may be showing a romantic interest in Pale.

Soon the odd couple, Anna and Pale, consummate their curiosity about each other and Pale shows the softer, even gallant side of his nature. This leads to the curtain scene with the couple embracing, silhouetted against the twilight glow entering the loft's huge windows like a benediction from Robbie, whose spectral presence is felt throughout the play.

That Norton can finally make Pale acceptable to Anna as well as the audience is the gift of great acting talent, perhaps fully revealed for the first time in this play. Just as discerning in her characterization of Anna is Catherine Keener, a versatile young actress who won an Oscar nomination for her performance in "Being John Malkovich." Anna marks Keener's New York stage debut, an auspicious one indeed.

Keener is achingly sympathetic as a fiercely independent and emotionally isolated woman who fills her time with frantic activity that passes for a life. Her bantering relationship with the equally lonely Larry is touching, while her relationship with Burton feels almost sterile. Her slow awakening to the possibilities of Pale is beautifully drawn and believable.

Dallas Roberts' take on the role of Larry emphasizes the character's ironic humor and world-weariness, which tends to vanish when Burton is around. But the relationship of Larry and Burton is never clearly spelled out by the playwright, who obviously didn't find it important to the thrust of the play.

Ty Burrell is unarguably attractive as Burton but his role is not as fleshed out as the other three characters. If he is hurt by Anna's growing interest in Pale, he tries not to show it. Perhaps it is something that people in his white-collar class simply would not acknowledge in fear of injured majesty.

James Haughton, the Signature Theater Company's founding director and director of the play, has invested "Burn This" with a sense of high drama but still gives it a chance to breathe between overheated confrontations. To his credit, the play is just as fresh and compelling as it was 15 years ago, though seemingly slower in tempo.

Christine Jones' almost unfurnished set evokes a transient life style lived by society's outsiders, and Pat Collins' lighting succeeds in casting more shadows than illumination. Jane Greenwood's costumes are appropriate to the characters, making Burton's black tie for New Year's Eve seem as natural as Larry's penchant for walking around in briefs.

The mission of the Signature Theater is to devote each season to a living playwright whose oeuvre is deemed worth of exploration in considerable depth.

So far it has honored Romulus Linney, Lee Blessing, Edward Albee, Horton Foote, Adrienne Kennedy, Sam Shepard, Arthur Miller, John Guare, and Maria Irene Fornes. It is continuing its salute to the 65-year-old Wilson with the world premiere of his "Book of Days" at another Off Broadway Theater, The Peter Norton Space.