By Christopher Cappiello

Frozen Playwright's Latest in Laguna

British playwright Bryony Lavery made a splash in 2004 with Frozen, a bracing play about pedophile serial killings. The original New York production won a best actor Tony for Brian F. O'Byrne, and snagged three other nominations, including best play. Lavery's latest, Last Easter, makes its West Coast premiere at the Laguna Playhouse, opening -- with seasonal appropriateness -- the week after Easter.

While Frozen explored the very darkest recesses of the criminal mind, Last Easter is a warm rumination on friendship in the face of illness. The central character is June, a London theater lighting designer, who discovers she is terminally ill with cancer. Upon hearing the news, three colorful but caring theater friends pertly pack her off to visit Lourdes, the spot in France where supposedly sacred waters possess miraculous healing powers.

"It's a play about life and death," says Kelly Mantle, the actor who plays Gash, June's female impersonator friend. "The glory of that is the playwright mixes the laughter with the tears," he explains, "just like it is in real life."

"Gash is a fabulous creature," Mantle says with a laugh when asked about his character. "He's a beautiful character -- as worldly as he is naïve, and as witty as he is silly and stupid." Most importantly, he adds, "he never becomes a stereotype."

Mantle, an Oklahoma native who happens to be the nephew of New York Yankee legend Mickey Mantle ("my daddy's big brother," he offers with pride), notes that, in addition to the oh-so-gay presence of Gash, "There's also some gay elements between the female characters."

"On a human level," Mantle says, "anyone who has lost a friend or a family member from terminal illness will relate to this story. I really think the playwright has shed new light on the subject." And, he adds, "There's lots of references to July Garland!" Gash idolizes Garland and puts on a one-person show celebrating the great diva to raise money for the gang's journey to Lourdes.

Last Easter runs from April 18-May 21 at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. For tickets and more information, call (949) 497-2787, or visit www.LagunaPlayhouse.com.

The Black Rider Saddles up at the Ahmanson

Robert Wilson will have to buy one of those new lofts popping up downtown if his work is going to continue to be produced so often at the Music Center. This season the Texas-born master of avant-garde staging has had two productions at the Los Angeles Opera -- the largely panned Parsifal and the more popular Madama Butterfly -- and now his 16-year-old musical fable, The Black Rider, gets a long overdue SoCal staging at the Ahmanson.

Based on old Germanic folklore, The Black Rider is a take on the age-old story of the regular guy who makes a pact with the devil. Back in 1990 Wilson teamed up with composer Tom Waits and beat poet legend William S. Burroughs (Queer, Naked Lunch) to create this expressionistic production, which was first staged in Hamburg. With Waits' eccentric instrumentation, Burroughs' powerfully pared down poetry (including direct allusions to his own tragic accidental shooting of his wife) and Wilson's signature slow-mo staging, The Black Rider is probably something any individual theatergoer will either love or hate. But you won't know until you go, will you?

The Black Rider runs April 22-June 11 at the Ahmanson Theatre. For tickets and more information, call (213) 628-2772, or visit www.TaperAhmanson.org.