RAVE!

BY JIM FARBER
THEATER CRITIC

“We hope you enjoy your flight.”

How many times has that phrase gone in one ear and out the other — following a half-listened to description of airline safety procedures — prior to taking off into the friendly skies?

Cleverly, it's the way the New York theater company Collective: Unconscious begins “Charlie Victor Romeo,” its white-knuckle re-creation of six major real-life airline emergencies, on stage through July 15 at the Macgowan Little Theatre on the Westwood campus of UCLA.

“Should there be a loss in cabin pressure, oxygen masks will be released . . .” drones the pert flight attendant. Then, for 90 uninterrupted minutes the audience is taken inside the cockpit of six aircraft (military and commercial), that have a date with disaster.

The dialogue, however, is not theatricalized repartee. This is not John Wayne in “The High and the Mighty.” And it's certainly not Leslie Nielsen in “Airplane.”

These are exact, word-for-word ex changes extracted from the doomed flights' cockpit voice recorders (code name: Charlie Victor Romeo). It's reality theater that will have you gripping your seat.

No one, of course, including these flight crews, ever got on a plane expecting it to crash. And in five of the six incidents depicted, everything is cruising along just fine as the scene opens: everyone is doing their jobs, and in the case of American Eagle Flight 4184 (stuck in a holding pattern over Roselawn, Ind.) there's even some flirtatious activity between the flight attendants and the cockpit crew.

Then all hell breaks loose.

In several incidents, including the American Eagle disaster and Air Force AWAC's flight, designation “Yukla 27,” (which on take off flew directly into a flock of Canadian geese), the emergency brought the plane down almost instantly, filling the cockpit with frantic, useless commands of “Bring her up!” and “More power!”

But in other cases, such as Aeroperu Flight 603 and United Airlines Flight 232, the emergency took much longer to resolve, as the crew frantically communicated with airport ground control in an effort to remedy their situation and land the plane.

These two re-creations are by far the most terrifying. In the former, the pilot (played by Dan Krumm) and his first officer (Julia Randall) are caught in a nightmare scenario, when, due to a neglectful ground crew, they find themselves piloting a Boeing 757 with no ac curate in-flight information regarding their air speed or altitude.

And as the situation worsens panic and proper procedure collide head on.

In contrast, the cockpit of UA flight 232, which ended up cartwheeling into an Iowa cornfield, represents a desperate study in “the right stuff,” as the crew, (led by Stuart Rudlin as the plane's pilot) tries desperately to gain control following a crippling engine explosion.

At a time when Americans are transfixed by “reality” television shows such as “Cops,” “Charlie Victor Romeo” provides a similar jolt, but with much more concern for journalistic accuracy and respect for its subject.

The acting is superb, the cockpit re-creations are totally believable, and the direction is super-charged.

“Charlie Victor Romeo” is powerful stuff. It's scary, especially if you're willing to suspend your disbelief and imagine you're up there at 10,000 feet and falling. This is theater that takes realism to an entirely new altitude.

One thing's for sure. The next time you fly, you'll be paying a lot more attention when the flight attendant starts her little litany.

“Charlie Victor Romeo” plays at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday through July 15 (no performance July 4). Macgowan Little Theatre, UCLA, Westwood. Tickets: $35. Information: 310-825-2101.

Publish Date:Friday June 29