A love story with heart and wit, Louie And Ophelia gives L.A.'s newest dinner theater, Regency West, a noteworthy debut production. All components of Gus Edwards' play, from the writing to the acting and directing, are first-rate. The room itself, located in the heart of L.A.'s black cultural scene, Leimert Park, is large and comfortable, with a raised stage that affords easy sightlines.
The theater part of the operation is in the hands of actress Vanessa Bell Calloway ("Coming to America") and director Adleane Hunter (founder of the Lorraine Hansberry Youth Acting Troupe), both of whom saw Louie And Ophelia when it was first produced back east two years ago and decided to mount a West Coast version. Calloway plays Ophelia, a tart-tongued, driven, single mother who has had the values of education and achievement drilled into her from childhood. She doesn't suffer fools gladly and views men from a guarded distance, having been hurt and abandoned by her husband.
Louie (Richard Lawson), on the other hand, is easygoing, fun-loving and working-class -- qualities Ophelia finds hard to accept, even though she knows he is a decent man who truly loves her. It especially gripes her that he could be content to work as a chef instead of trying to elevate himself by dint of study and reading. The relationship between Louie and Ophelia is plumbed in all its aspects by Edwards, a playwright skilled at putting characters into conflict without faulting humor.
Louie And Ophelia follows the up-and down fortunes of this slightly odd couple in linear but affecting fashion, making telling points along the way about how differences in class, racial attitudes (she's hyper-critical whenever anyone black does anything to embarrass her) and deportment can sunder a love affair. Edwards also shows, though, how even broken hearts can be mended by strong doses of humanity and acceptance. Such down-to-earth wisdom plus the superb acting of Calloway and Lawson are what make Louie and Ophelia the pleasure it is.
