Mastrosimone: Mr. Tough Guy -- Author Weaves Nervy, But Passionate Tales

The day after Frank Sinatra saw "Sinatra," the 1993 TV miniseries based on his life, he chatted with the author, William Mastrosimone.

"You were pretty tough on me," the legendary crooner told the writer. "So what did I get wrong?" asked Mastrosimone. Sinatra replied, "Nothing. It was all true."

It's the kind of praise Mastrosimone relishes: No hype, just respect for his attempts at truth-mining. It might have made him even happier than winning a Golden Globe for his "Sinatra" script.

There's little about Mastrosimone, a New Jersey native who settled in Washington in 1987, to suggest the Hollywood cachet he's had since the success of "Extremities" (his searing drama about a rape victim's revenge on her attacker).

A balding, stocky man of 45, with a dark mustache and kindly brown eyes, he shows up for a morning interview in an untrendy tweed and leather rancher's jacket.

His Jeep is less a fashion statement than a way to navigate the roads near his 13-acre spread in Enumclaw. He drops into conversation beloved quotes from Ernest Hemingway and Bertrand Russell. And when he calls Columbia Pictures chief Peter Guber "a good friend," it doesn't sound like power name-dropping.

A self-described hermit and loner - "You have to really look hard to find me" - Mastrosimone nonetheless maintains a presence in Seattle theater. Several of his heated, nervy plays have been produced at the Seattle Repertory Theatre - including "Shivaree" (about a sheltered hemophiliac), "Cat's Paw" (the taut encounter between a TV reporter and an eco-terrorist) and "Sunshine" (a profile of a porno house stripper).

On Monday, the Intiman Theatre presents a staged reading of his current work-in-progress: "Burning Desire." (Call 626-0782 for tickets.) Mastrosimone describes it as the love story of a heroin addict and the man determined to rescue her.

"It's a clash between romanticism, and this very tough and disturbing disease," he says. "It's also about drug rehabilitation, which I think is going to be the scandal of the 1990s. Nobody has the answer to drug addiction but rehabs pretend they do. But just look at the relapse rate for people coming out of these programs, and you'll find it's very, very high."

He also addresses in the play "co-dependency and the line between helping and hurting, love and self-destruction. I don't think every act of love is an act of co-dependency, but in rehab they imply that. Mother Teresa, who works with the poor with no thought for herself, Romeo and Juliet, even Santa Claus . . . don't we admire people who sacrifice themselves for the good of others? Or are they sick?"

The passion Mastrosimone exhibits is borne of observation and empathy: The 30-odd roles in "Burning Desire" are all based on people he's known. He swears his plays always arise from his own life.

Even "Extremities"? "I was once involved with a woman who had been brutally raped, and I saw how damaging it was to her and to our relationship.

"I also befriended a woman of about 55 who was raped. Her court case against the rapist was thrown out for lack of evidence. The guy threatened to come after her, and she was so afraid she moved out of town. Before leaving she told me, `If I could have five minutes alone with him, I'd get the justice I deserve.' That night I went home and wrote `Extremities.' "

Mastrosimone has had his own brush with random violence. He won't be photographed because several years ago a deranged man spotted his image in a newspaper and stalked him for months. "He's in jail now for 20 years because he attacked some people with an ax," the writer reports. "But for a while I felt like I was living in `Extremities.' "

Though personable and unassuming, Mastrosimone agrees he is impelled to write about the dark, frayed edges of society: "I try to make each play different, but I think they all have one thing in common. They're about captivity, people trying to break out of something that's trapping them physically or psychologically."

In the end, however, Mastrosimone swears, "I just write about what scares me, and moves me, what I need to know more about."

Right now he wants to know how others react to "Burning Desire," which started out as a four-hour play, and might wind up half that size and might debut at Intiman next year. When Mastrosimone invites a friendly waitress to the reading he tells her, "Let me know what you think afterward." He sounds like he means it.