Nekropolis
                 

REVIEW by Willard Manus

LOS ANGELES -- Don Nigro's taut one-act play NECROPOLIS is set in a shabby room in an unnamed city whose citizens are fighting a civil war in the streets. Divisions of another kind separate the play's two characters: Anna (Francesca Nina O'Keefe) and Post (Jim Thalman). The latter is an American journalist covering the war; the former a combatant, a pistol-packin', stressed-out mama serving "her people" as a sniper. They've just met, liked the look in each other's eyes, and decided to pop into bed. The sex is great, but then reality--history and character--take over. He can't understand how she could kill people on demand. She can't understand his hypocrisy (didn't his country go around bombing innocent people all the time?) or his professed objectivity. They argue politics, morality, commitment, love, lust and their future together. There isn't much else to the hour-long play, but its actors, helped by John DiFusco's strong direction, skilfully flesh out the tension and conflicts in the text. NECROPOLIS is a love story poisoned by the irrationality and violence of our time.