Blurred Lines of Story Ownership

In the beginning, the child--unschooled and vulnerable--absorbs knowledge from the parent. Gradually, the youngster catches up to, then overtakes the parent. And, finally, in a twist as cruel as it is beautiful, the child obliterates the parent by taking his or her place.

This cycle revolves through Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories,” a Pulitzer Prize finalist that reaches the small screen tonight as the second in a KCET-produced series of adapted dramas (9 p.m. on PBS stations KCET and KVCR).

Though Margulies’ characters are not parent and child, per se, their parallels to those roles are obvious. Ruth Steiner (played by Linda Lavin) is a well-known writer and instructor; Lisa Morrison (Samantha Mathis) is a graduate student who has moved to New York to learn from her. Over time, the imperious but motherly Ruth becomes mentor to the coltish young writer. Then the younger woman publishes a novel inspired by a deeply personal experience that Ruth thought she was telling Lisa in confidence. In the heated discussion that follows, the issue of “ownership” of one’s “stories” applies as readily to the parent-child/teacher-student dynamic as to the more obvious topic of ethics.

“Collected Stories” was commissioned by Costa Mesa’s South Coast Repertory and premiered there in 1996. The TV version features the cast from a 1999 Geffen Playhouse production, directed--as in Westwood--by Gil Cates, from a teleplay by Margulies.

On film, the story is opened up ever so slightly, so that we witness Ruth growing older by the second as she scans Lisa’s hurtful manuscript, while across town at a reading, Lisa delivers excerpts aloud to her rapt new fans.

And the vicious cycle completes one revolution.