THEATER REVIEWS : Kaufman’s ‘Tongues’ Gets Tied at Cast

If the pretext of James and Nora Joyce confronting the mental deterioration of their daughter Lucia sounds like a intellectual melodrama, that’s about what it is in Lynne Kaufman’s “Speaking in Tongues.” Although the current Cast Theatre staging boasts magnetic performances from Paul Elder and Wendy Robie as the writer and his wife-equivalent, the play itself gets bogged down in its own pretensions.

Director Aimee Patrick calibrates the interplay between his leading actors with gentle, compassionate finesse, making the Joyce-Nora scenes utterly watchable. As Lucia, however, Cynthia Savage is shrill and not a lot more. Tim Ruddy as Samuel Beckett plays off the family of three as well as can be expected, but his supporting role isn’t fully integrated into the plot.

The setup screams for a celebration of the life of the mind--or at least some highbrow poetry--but the language and ideas that follow don’t make good on the boast. If nothing else, Kaufman convinces you that the real people who inspired her play were probably much more interesting than these fictionalized versions.

*”Speaking in Tongues,” Cast-at-the-Circle Theatre, 800 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays 7 p.m.; Ends July 11. $15. (213) 462-0265. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.