Vagrant

VAGRANT, written and directed by Guy Zimmerman, is a typical Padua Playwrights work--small-scale, elliptical and mysterious, with the stylized action playing out against an unseen malevolent presence or threat, in this case an unseen vagrant who hangs around a shabby South-Central electronics shop owned by Meyer (Christopher Allport). The latter struggles to keep his business alive, motivated by stubborn idealism (or is it stupidity?). Choleric and stiff-legged, he is a last angry man, married to a younger woman, Patty (Niamh McCormally), who is haunted by memories of their missing daughter. The third person in the triangular drama is Larkin (Patrick Burleigh), an LAPD cop who could also be a secret criminal. Characters change, metamorphose into mythical beings, then come back to so-called reality in this dark, puzzling but compelling tale.

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