‘Kimberly Akimbo’ lights up the stage

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Kathleen Dunn is among the all-star cast of “Kimberly Akimbo” that includes actress and Malibu local Katharine Ross. “Kimberly Akimbo,” a dark comedy written by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, opens Thursday, Feb. 28 and runs through March 18 at the Malibu Stage Company.

The Malibu Stage Company debuts another work by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Lindsay-Abaire when “Kimberly Akimbo” opens next Thursday.

By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times

You might call it an encore performance.

In 2009, director Graeme Clifford garnered accolades for his production of “Rabbit Hole,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. So Clifford is excited to be helming another Lindsay-Abaire affair for Malibu Stage Company. “Kimberly Akimbo,” starring Katherine Ross and Tasha Ames, debuts next Thursday, Feb. 23 and runs through March 18.

“I really enjoy what he writes,” Clifford said recently in between rehearsals.

Contrary to appearances, “Kimberly Akimbo,” Lindsay-Abaire’s 2000 play about a teenage girl afflicted with progeria (a rare, fatal disease that causes children to age prematurely), is a comedy. But it does share some elements in common with “Rabbit Hole,” in which the playwright delicately mines humor from an otherwise unfunny situation.

“In ‘Rabbit Hole,’ he explored how two people deal with the death of their son,” Clifford said. “It’s basically another exploration of loss. The loss in ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ has not yet occurred but it’s going to happen.”

Malibu resident Ross, who rose to stardom with award-winning film roles in “The Graduate” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” returns to the Malibu Stage Company stage after previously playing in “Rabbit Hole.” Ross plays the title “teenager” who, afflicted by progeria, is literally 16 going on 60.

If recent history is any guide, the conceit of premature aging has not lost its hold on the popular imagination. In 2009, Brad Pitt starred in the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a fantasy drama which follows the life of a man who ages backwards. In “Kimberly Akimbo,” Clifford explains that much of the humor comes from the afflicted teen’s zany family.

“The comedy explores relationships between people and how people are drawn to one another regardless of what they look like,” he said. “[Lindsay-Abaire’s] writing, of course, is very sharp and clear.”

Clifford, a seasoned filmmaker, brings a lot of pedigree to the table. Although Clifford has only directed two other productions with MSC, his track record is solid: Actress Tasha Ames, who plays Kimberly’s aunt in the new production, won an Ovation Award for her role in “Rabbit Hole,” while “A Soldier’s Play” received two Ovation nominations and a NAACP Best Actor Award for star Obba Babatunde.

Clifford will attend every staging of “Kimberly Akimbo” during its run.

“No two performances are exactly alike,” he said.  

Clifford is understandably eager to get the word out on how entertaining the new MSC production is. Ticket sales will be important to the local theater. Unlike another Lindsay-Abaire play, “Good People,” which is opening at the Geffen Playhouse this spring, “Malibu Stage Company is hugely underfunded,” Clifford said. “We don’t have a David Geffen.”

In between plays, Clifford teaches three film courses at Pepperdine University. His wife, Patricia, also works in entertainment as a producer. Even though Clifford acknowledges that directing a play is very different from making movies, the longtime Malibu resident brings a wealth of storytelling experience to his role as director of “Kimberly.” In the 1970s, he worked as an editor on movies such as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Convoy,” starring Kris Kristofferson and Ali McGraw. He still remembers working for the latter’s larger-than-life director Sam Peckinpah.

“We were editing it in a house on Topanga Beach,” Clifford recalled. “Sam was living there but he also had a houseboat in Sausalito. Those were the days where you screened the movies…We went to George Lucas’s facility, hung out on the houseboat for a couple of days and came back.”

Since the 1970s, Clifford has primarily directed television movies and episodes with a few notable exceptions, such as “Frances” (1982), his feature film about doomed actress Frances Farmer, and “Gleaming the Cube” (1989), a skateboarding-themed film starring Christian Slater and featuring skateboard legends Tony Hawk and Stacy Peralta.

“It is a different kind of creative satisfaction,” Clifford said, describing the difference between filmmaking and theater as opposite experiences. “In a movie…each scene, it’s like fitting together pieces of a puzzle, you have to keep the big picture in your head…With a play, you work out the larger dynamics first and, as you get closer to opening night, you work out the finer details.”

“Kimberly Akimbo” opens Thursday, Feb. 23 and runs through March 18 at the Malibu Stage Company at 29243 Pacific Coast Highway. The play shows Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 5 p.m. with a 2 p.m. show on Feb. 26 (Oscars night). Tickets are $25 for general admission and $10 for students and can be purchased by calling 310.589.1998.