Not much, but it's a st ================================================================= April 5, 1998 The Orange County Register A MATURE 'FATHER' [Entertainment] STAGE: Frank Langella finds the perfect midcareer role in Strindberg's dark drama. By PAUL HODGINS * Where: Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood * When: Previews end Tuesday. Regular performances Wednesday through May 3. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday * How much: $23-$37.50 * Availability: Good for all performances * Call: (310) 208-5454 "I think I always knew that stillness was a powerful thing," Frank Langella says. To prove his point, the imposing actor treats his interviewer to a silent gaze hypnotic, focused, pregnant with intent that seems to make the air hum with anticipation. "You see? It's one of the good things to have in your bag of tricks." Langella smiles, and the electricity dissipates but not completely. "As I get older I've come to realize more and more (how true) that is. If you watch a lot of younger actors you'll see that they don't understand stillness, they don't understand the power of the simple, unbroken gaze." Langella is 58 now, and the sharp-edged brooding good looks that mesmerized audiences in films such as "Dracula" (1979) have softened somewhat. His short-cropped hair has gone gray, and his long, lean body has filled out slightly. But his trademark acting style acerbic, coolly refined, yet packed with tightly contained emotion has, if anything, been distilled to its essence over the years. While Langella's recent film roles have barely scratched the surface of his abilities, his talents come alive on stage. He has scored some memorable midcareer successes on Broadway over the last few seasons in "Cyrano de Bergerac," Noel Coward's "Present Laughter" and, especially, in Strindberg's "The Father." While critical reaction to the 1996 Broadway production was mixed, Langella's portrayal of a tightly wound military man who gradually loses a battle of wills and control with his scheming wife drew unanimous praise. Local audiences will have a chance to see Langella reprise the role. "The Father" opens Wednesday at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood for a four-week run. WHO NEEDS PREPARATION? OR MAKEUP? Langella's long-held reputation as an exacting and sometimes demanding perfectionist has been tempered in recent years by a more simplified, even relaxed, approach to his craft. "As I get older I see all the things I don't need," he said. "I don't need a great amount of preparation time, and I don't need to go into strange places, and I don't need to slavishly work on subtext. When you're young you want people to know you're acting. But when you get older you don't want people to know you're acting you don't want them to catch you at it. "I wash my face, I brush my teeth, I put on the costume, and maybe 30 seconds before my first entrance I sort of take a moment to get into it, and then I do it. I wear no makeup I haven't done makeup in years, unless it's something like 'Cyrano,' where I have to wear a prosthetic." Langella's performance in "The Father" has been praised for its meticulousness and complete conviction. Yet he admits he had no idea about how to approach the role. "I knew I was extremely attracted to (the character). He was unlike anyone I've ever played before. Very few male characters have this dramatic range. There aren't very many plays in which you see a man being destroyed by a woman. There are any number of great female parts, like 'Hedda Gabler' or 'The Heiress,' where the female protagonist has a man behind her oppressing her. "I wasn't quite certain how much of what he was going through would be revealed earlier (in the play) or how much later. But I try always to be extremely open to what I call lucky accidents. You shouldn't have an idea in your head about which way it goes. Sometimes you can't help it you read a play and get an impression, and you want to do it because of that impression. But then rehearsal comes and you find yourself going down all sorts of avenues you didn't expect to go down." NO INTERMISSION ALLOWED The New York production was plagued by early problems, notably a short rehearsal period and a last-minute change of directors. It's obvious that Langella demands (and gets) a considerable degree of input into details of production normally left to the director alone for instance, he insisted that the play be performed without intermission. "That was my choice. I'm very glad we did, because we wanted the experience to be cumulative. We didn't want to give the audience a chance to sit and have a cigarette or a brownie and break the spell. Once you're in there you're trapped, and you have to descend into hell with this man. I'm very much in favor of there being no intermission if the piece isn't absurdly long. It's like watching a great aria. It's kind of wonderful to take it in one big sweep." While Langella has enjoyed his recent successes on stage, he is careful at this point in his career not to overextend himself. Performing "The Father" for months on end would be "physically overwhelming and psychically exhausting," he said. He can afford to be choosier, too, about his professional commitments which partially explains his eight-year absence from Broadway. "Nothing came along that I wanted to do. The things that I was asked to do I didn't want to do because I feared they would be hits and I didn't want to be stuck in them. I just turned down a long stint on Broadway in a musical. I said, 'I can't prepare for six months, go out of town for a while and then give you a year on Broadway. I'll be a basket case. I just can't do it.' At my time of life it's much too much time to give to one thing." Langella isn't particularly concerned that he has no firm projects lined up after "The Father" closes next month. He admits, with an impish grin, that he may welcome a respite from the boards. "I honestly can't tell you I'm a theater lover. I go to see a good friend or to see a play that intrigues me, but I'm not a steady theater-goer. When you've been doing it as long as I've been doing it, your requirements not only of yourself but of your colleagues (are) very, very high. It's very difficult to sit in a theater and see something that makes me uncomfortable. So I limit my going to the theater. I have to really, really want to see something. "One of the best experiences I ever had in the theater was last year doing 'Cyrano,' when our lighting board blew up. The stage manager said, 'We can't do the show.' "Well, we were all like kids let out of school. There we were at 7 p.m. with a free night. So the whole company raced over to see 'Side Show.' " There's a glimmer now in Langella's dark, serious eyes. "Now, that was a wonderful night at the theater!" *************************************************************