By Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 8, 2008

When "Rabbit Hole" opened on Broadway in 2006, the New York Times described the play -- about a married couple struggling to come to terms with the accidental death of their young child -- as inspiring "such copious weeping among its audience that you wonder early on if you should have taken a life jacket."

Now, I know what you're thinking. What better diversion on a hot summer night than to spend two hours with a family whose 4-year-old son has been killed by a car? That's the question posed by Paul Morella, who co-stars in a new production running at the Olney Theatre Center through August.

Well, consider this: The script by David Lindsay-Abaire ("Fuddy Meers"), won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for drama. But pedigree is not the only reason to see the show, at least according to Morella, who plays Howie, the child's father. "It's also funnier than you would think," he says.

Ha-ha funny? Yes, ha-ha funny, the actor insists. "It's just like when you go to a hospital room, and the people who make jokes, or humor, are those you least expect."

Deborah Hazelett, who plays Howie's wife, Becca, agrees. "This is not a play about people weeping," she says. "It's about a family surviving. And families, let's face it, are funny."

At the same time, the subject matter is fairly intense, both actors admit. "There's . . . some laughter," Hazelett says carefully, before adding that the play's main themes of grief, loss and forgiveness offer an opportunity, not for wallowing in sadness but for "connection, celebration and catharsis." In other words, exactly what we've always gone to the theater for.

Rehearsing such heavy material, though (lines of dialogue that are capable of eliciting a chuckle of recognition one minute and a sob the next) presents its own special acting challenges, says Morella, who says working on the play has often been "so draining that you're kind of wiped" at the end of the day. "It's not the kind of thing you can rehearse over and over and over."

Morella describes the play's less stringent rehearsal schedule, which avoids soul-crushing, back-to-back run-throughs, as "about quality, not quantity."

Hazelett calls director Mitchell Hébert, himself an actor, protective of the show's "great moments of tenderness or connection." Over-rehearsal, in this case, is as dangerous as under-rehearsal, she says. "You don't massage more than you need to."

Other productions might not be able to get away with that. Not without Morella's and Hazelett's talents -- and not to mention previous forays into what Morella calls the theatrical "heart of darkness." He cites his role in Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company's "Watbanaland," in which he played the father of a child born without a brain, as good preparation for the emotional journey that "Rabbit Hole" takes him, and us, on.

As for Hazelett, the actress says she hardly ever plays anything but roles like Becca. "For better or worse," she says, "I seem to mostly do that sort of work."

What sort of work is that, exactly? "Women that require a certain . . . emotional journey," she says. "An emotional journey that requires me to be really emotionally available on stage."

Not that she's complaining, mind you. Not with the kind of steady employment afforded by roles in such powerful dramas as Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler," Pinter's "Betrayal" and what Hazelett calls the "absolutely gut-wrenching" "Crave" by Sarah Kane at Signature Theatre last year.

Still, the dream of lighter fare occasionally tempts from time to time, especially in the dog days of August. "Sometimes," Hazelett says with a laugh, "I just think, 'Could I just do a little Noel Coward? How about Neil Simon?' "

Rabbit Hole Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd, Olney. 301-924-3400.http://www.olneytheatre.org. Through Aug. 31. $25-$48.