Theater review: ‘Kataki’ at McCadden Place Theatre

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Never underestimate the power of a simple premise, whether it’s Ryan Reynolds trapped in a coffin in “Buried,” the latest Sundance favorite, or “Kataki (The Enemy),” Shimon Wincelberg’s 1959 antiwar drama at McCadden Place Theatre.

Sometime during World War II, an American gunner (Fernando Aldaz) shot out of the sky finds himself marooned on a remote Pacific island with a Japanese soldier (Yas Takahashi). On Potsch Boyd’s overgrown jungle set, the two men sniff each other out. Neither speaks the other’s language, and their encounters — first violent, then cooperative — are a kind of compressed history of human civilization. Aldaz and Takahashi create an appealing rapport, though you wish director Peter Haskell had generated a more palpable sense of danger in the early scenes.

“Star Trek” buffs will recall veteran TV scribe Wincelberg wrote “Dagger of the Mind,” the episode featuring the first appearance of the Vulcan mind-meld. His humanist message feels a little dated here, but this Prince Livingston Players production deftly explores what genuine communication is. If “Kataki” ultimately comes to feel more like a playwriting exercise than a compelling story, it’s nevertheless a reminder that “enemy” is really just a word.

--Charlotte Stoudt

Kataki (The Enemy) McCadden Place Theatre, 1157 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Feb. 13. $20. Contact: (323) 960-7721. Running time: 2 hours.