STAGE REVIEW : COMINGS, GOINGS OF MOURNING

“Provenance” means “place of origin,” but the funny thing about Janice van Horne’s play at the Ensemble Studio Theatre is that we never really understand where its heroine (Gretchen Corbett) is coming from.

We do see where she lives--Cape Cod, in one of those houses where the kitchen cupboards won’t stay closed. She shares the house with her mother (Elsa Raven) and teen-age daughter (Leah Ayres), who is about to leave for college.

We can also see that she’s on edge. The immediate cause is that her ex-husband (Michael MacRae) is coming for dinner, the first time she’s seen him in years. She is also mourning the departure of her daughter in advance, as is evident from the way she alternates between wisecracking with the daughter to snapping at her about every little thing.

But her tension seems habitual. We look for the ex-husband’s visit to dislodge its cause. It does give us clues. We see how deeply she needs to connect with someone, even with a man she doesn’t especially respect.

The scene also leads to a confession about her anger toward her mother, something she has hidden so well that it comes as a surprise to the viewer. Finally, however, we seem to have come to the heart of the play.

But by now the play is almost over. A climactic scene has to do double duty: both to reveal the mother’s hang-ups (up to now she has seemed as comfortable as Aunt Jenny) and to resolve the daughter’s rage. It’s a suspiciously quick fix.

By being so fuzzy for so long about what’s wrong, “Provenance” runs the great risk of making its heroine seem a born injustice collector--one of those people whose milieu is discontent. It needs to be established, early on, that the wisecracks and the swigs of vodka from the cupboard have something to do with her need to show her Mama what a big girl she is, after which her Mama will naturally love her.

For instance, Van Horne’s heroine tells us she hates to take physical care of the mother, who is starting to be infirm. Couldn’t we see an example of this? The interplay could be telling, as to who has the real power in this house; and it needn’t be obvious. Actors can do a lot between the lines in a play like this. But they do need the lines.

Corbett gives Van Horne the character she has written so far, all tension and embattled self-pity. It is not hard to see why MacRae as the ex-husband decides after dinner that he’d better be off to Boston or to understand why Ayres as the spunky daughter is looking forward--much as she loves Mom--to college.

Raven also plays her character as written, a large cozy Grandma who is forever losing her glasses and mildly clucking about young people today. It’s a surprise to find that there’s anything more to her than that.

Stephen Homsy’s set shows the subfloor and the bracing of the family house as well as the walls, as if to suggest that we are going to get down under the surface of things tonight. Instead “Provenance” shows us the complaint without dramatizing the cause.

The Five Colleges of Claremont are presenting John Ford’s “ ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” circa 1630. This has everything that the groundlings of the day looked for in theater--sword fights, poisonings, corrupt priests, extravagant language and incest (here between a brother and a sister).

Collegiate actors impart a fresh-faced innocence to such a decadent text, making it seem even more a fairy tale. The setting is Italy, of course. Leonard Pronko’s cast stands up to the language well, and there are some promising actors here, particularly Nicholas Christopher as the doomed-for-love Giovanni.

Pronko, one of the nation’s leading experts in Asian theater, also uses the hanamichi walkway of the Kabuki theater, and it proves extremely useful in highlighting speeches, isolating characters and provided long, dramatic exits and entrances. Performances are at 8 p.m. through Saturday at the Garrison Theatre, Claremont College, Pomona. (714) 626-7530. ‘PROVENANCE’ Janice Van Horne’s play, at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. Director Albert Ihde. Set design Stephen Homsy. Lighting Liz Stillwell. Stage manager Maria Mayenzet. Property master-designer Curtis York. Producer Laurie Hendricks. With Leah Ayres, Michael MacRae, Gretchen Corbett and Elsa Raven. Plays Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets $10-$15. 1089 N. Oxford Ave. (213) 851-3771.