On Theater:

“Don’t be afraid to enjoy this play because the subject matter might make you uneasy,” director Martie Ramm cautions her prospective audience regarding the upcoming production at Golden West College.

The play in question is Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” and, as Ramm said, “I was immediately taken with the sharp writing, the unusual structure, the humor, the use of really great music and the sensitive and creative way it dealt with a really difficult subject.”

That subject, by the way, is pedophilia. “How I Learned to Drive” was inspired, the playwright said, by Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” a favorite book of both the author and the director.

“I read that book over and over again,” Vogel said, noting that “the eroticizing of children is so prevalent in the culture yet so seldom acknowledged.”

“What I wanted to do was to write a play so equally balanced in empathy that, as with the experience of reading ‘Lolita,’ both men and women would project themselves, but project themselves into Lolita and Humbert Humbert,” Vogel said. “I had no interest in a movie-of-the-week drama about child molesting.”

“Even though the subject is the inappropriate sexual experiences of a young girl, the occurrence [of watching the play] might be a positive one,” Ramm said. “You can laugh while being compelled to think and feel. You can listen to the music and remember your own sexual journey. It is OK.”

New York magazine termed the play a “strangely sympathetic exploration of child molestation.”

“If an audience can empathize with the characters, it can no longer distance itself from the issue,” Vogel said. Ramm is in agreement.

At Golden West, the young girl will be portrayed by Rebecca Wayne, with Patrick Rowley as the uncle. Others in the cast include Marcus Adornetto, Tony Graham, Nalby Mamkagh, Nicole Blume, Somayeh Foroushani, Sara Davis, Angela Bui, Deborah Lee and Jeanmarie Pirio.

“How I Learned to Drive” will be presented Oct. 16 to 25 in the Stage West Theater. Tickets are $10 and $12 and may be ordered at (714) 895-8150 or at www.gwctheater.com.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.