Theater: Cold Fire

That Summer—That Fall, by Frank D. Gilroy. Fate is a fury, and it cannot be dramatically served at room temperature. Like meteors, the heroes and heroines of tragedy consume themselves in flaming arcs of passion as they streak across the night sky of destiny. Playwright Gilroy (The Subject Was Roses) has had the dubious inspiration to modernize the Phaedra plot of Euripides and Racine and play it cool. His drama is as incendiary as a wet match head.

A paunchy, middle-aged Italian restaurant owner (Richard Castellano) discovers that he has an illegitimate son from a long-past liaison. The boy (Jon Voight) is...