One-man-show revisits ghosts of the past — including his own

Paul Linke has been transmuting the events of his life into drama for almost 30 years, beginning with his 1987 solo show, “Time Flies When You’re Alive,” later filmed for HBO, that detailed the death of Linke’s first wife from breast cancer.

Subsequent one-man shows, “Life After Time” and “Father Time,” completed a trilogy that was performed in its entirety in the late 1990s.

Now Linke expands the franchise at the Ruskin Group Theatre with “It’s Time,” a new solo show written by Linke and directed and developed by Edward Edwards. Like his previous outings, this “Time” is a bold and unvarnished recapitulation of Linke’s tribulations and triumphs, told with considerable wit and enough self-deprecation to mitigate its sometimes simplistic philosophical digressions.

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An able anecdotalist and raconteur, Linke commences his yarn with a description of his first college acting class in the late 1960s, a hilariously ribald account that captures the stoner spirit of the times in rich detail.

From there, Linke touches on the challenges of raising three children by himself. Throughout the show, family photos flash frequently in the background, but one in particular, taken scant months after his first wife’s death, shows the bravely grinning Linke posing with his three young children — a hollow-eyed, obviously traumatized brood. It is a shattering image, a portrait in bravery and bereavement that sticks in the memory.

Almost as if he’s trying to redress his previous dramatic preoccupation with his first wife’s death, Linke spends the latter part of the show enthusing about his rapturously happy marriage to his second wife. At this point, Linke’s theatrical valentine threatens to cloy. Yet Linke’s repeated warnings about the transitory nature of life are bracingly astringent, a splash in the face reawakening us to our shared mortality.

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“It’s Time”

Where: Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Ave., Santa Monica

When: 8 p.m. Fridays, 5 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; ends Dec. 4 (no shows Thanksgiving weekend)

Tickets: $25

Information: (310) 397-3244, www.ruskingrouptheatre.com

Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes

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