By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In a hospital room that could be set yesterday, today or tomorrow, an ill, aging woman (Kate Wilford) has a moment of lucidity. "I used to be brand-new," she whimpers.

On a Yorkshire moor in 1908, Clara (Carrie-Ellen Zappa), who would be diagnosed as developmentally disabled today but was offered no such kindness a century ago, listens to walls and holds a secret deep within.

Alex (Corinne Mohlenhoff) is radiant and fascinating but nevertheless the shady-side-of-35 daughter of that sad, failing woman anchored to a hospital bed.

Alex's modern issues include a mother she doesn't particularly like, a married lover she won't admit she desperately wants, the fear and guilt of dealing with an aging parent and a collection of old family photos in a shoe box. They are pictures of people she doesn't know; her family history is a mystery.

Fresh take on familiar themes

One of those pictures is from 1908 and captures a gloriously happy but brief moment in the life of beautiful Livvy (Sunshine Cappelletti) who, like Alex, finds herself discontented and incomplete, even as she's ripped open by the passion of loving if not wisely, too well.

If you are a fan of beyond-the-mainstream Cincinnati theater, the actresses listed above should be enough to get you to Women's Theatre Initiative's production of In Flame at the Performance Gallery.

Mohlenhoff, Cappelletti and Zappa are interesting actresses who make intriguing choices. Their track records continue in British playwright Charlotte Jones' drama about surviving passion and family and love and despair.

Jones' themes aren't new, and this ground has been well covered, but her approach is all her own. She's a deconstructionist: Do these lives mean what we think they mean or are they something else entirely? Can we ever know about their lives or ours?

The title In Flame refers to the immolations of sex and death and the trial by fire of self-awareness and self-acceptance. In Flame is also very much about the mystery of family and the threads, sometimes invisible, that connect lives.

Because, of course, Livvy, Clara and Alex and her mother are connected across a century of generations as the action on stage, under the tender, fluid direction of Regina Pugh, time-travels back and forth seamlessly, ultimately sewing the two stories together.

Mohlenhoff, a regular with Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival and IF Theatre Collective, has her best role of the season in Alex, a sexy mess of conflicting emotions and ambivalence. Alex isn't nice but she's endlessly fascinating, and Mohlenhoff opens her up and takes us in.

Double duty

Several actors are double cast, none more successfully than Zappa, who is particularly delicious as Alex's angry, slovenly roommate Clootie (named for a suet and raisin dumpling).

Brian Isaac Phillips is the quintessential cad who loves and leaves both Livvy and Alex. Brian Andrews-Griffin offers a nice duality as a creepily passive/aggressive male nurse and Livvy's milquetoast suitor (who also has a touch of p/a).

With In Flame following the equally compelling The Maids at Performance Gallery, this Eastern Avenue space is one to watch.

In Flame, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Performance Gallery, 3900 Eastern Ave. 604-8545.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com