Poetry of the Soul

A young girl holds a cheap piece of paper to her forehead. She’s memorizing not just words, but history and a legacy of terror and courage. The poem she fervently repeats to herself has been banned. This isn’t a Ray Bradbury story; this is the USSR circa 1930s.

Using lyrical movement, poetry and overlapping dialogue on a minimalist set, Nancy Keystone has created and directed an intense, expressionistic theatrical piece that starkly portrays the tragedy of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova’s life in “The Akhmatova Project,” a Critical Mass production at Actors’ Gang Theatre.

Akhmatova is played by two actors: Miranda Viscoli as the young Anna, freshly naive in a white cotton dress, and Valerie Spencer as the older, more sophisticated woman, chic in black. Spencer bears a striking resemblance to Akhmatova, with deep-set eyes above high cheekbones, gazing sadly under straight eyebrow-length bangs. As both past and future, they comment poignantly on each other’s scenes.

Akhmatova’s first husband, poet and adventurer Nikolai Gumilyev (Joseph Grimm, who also plays their son, among other roles), loved her, but “he hated children crying, raspberry jam in his teeth, womanish hysteria and he married me,” Akhmatova declares.

Keystone illustrates the decadent life of St. Petersburg with effectively choreographed romps of changing romantic liaisons and the flirtatious groveling of hopeful men, humorously much too eager to please the prancing actress-dancer Olga Glebova-Sudeikina (Candace Reid).

This lively society starkly contrasts with the terror under Stalin, a time when “only the dead smiled, glad to be at rest.” As St. Petersburg becomes Petrograd, then Leningrad, Akhmatova’s friends flee, are killed or commit suicide. Nikolai is executed. Her son and her third husband are arrested. She waits in line outside the prison.

Not everything fits. Why actor Joe Palmiotti doffs his dark togs and showers--and which of his five roles he’s playing at that point--isn’t clear.

Yet hearing the words of these persecuted literati--both in uncredited translations into English and in the original Russian (spoken by Natasha Basley)--the passion, strength and despair of those days becomes tangible.

The lines that say “more than any other art, poetry is a form of cultural education” and that “poetry is respected only in this country [Russia]” seem alarmingly true.

Using an elegant, spare style, with original music by Randy Tico and a lighting design by Daniel Ionazzi, Keystone has captured and distilled a strong woman’s voice, and in this collaborative effort, the company shows an admirably earnest dedication to wonderful words that Stalin tried to silence.

BE THERE

“The Akhmatova Project,” Actors’ Gang Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; March 19, 26, 2 p.m. Ends March 26. $15 to $20. (310) 845-0740. Running time: 2 hours.