Theater Reviews

GO PICK THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF A TRAILER-TRASH HOUSEWIFE  Del Shores may well be the Molière of L.A. Over decades, the writer-director-producer has stuck with, and by, a repertory of actors in his own comedies who frequently home in on hypocrites who cloak their power abuses, and homophobia, in the garb of the church. Trials and Tribulations (2003) concerns a wise hausfrau, Willadean (Beth Grant), stuck in a Texas trailer home. She teaches herself one new word a day — “pulverize, solidarity” — words that feed her battered self-respect. Through the visitations of a black neighbor, La Sonia (Octavia Spencer), and a slutty, over-the-hill cocktail waitress, Rayleen (Dale Dickey), Willadean slowly untangles the fibers of love, neediness and loathing that keep her attached to her increasingly abusive husband, J.D. (David Steen). (J.D. quotes the Bible to justify his thrashings of Willadean, and his opposition to her friends and her “liberation” — a part-time job at Wal-Mart.) Though the portrait of spousal abuse appears lifted from any rural domestic-abuse file, it floats in a pool of tart satirical jokes (extended riffs on crushed Lay’s potato chips baked into a casserole, and “cherry dump delight”) that land with unexpected poignancy. “Lord, she does not look good in the light of day,” remarks Willadean about her approaching competition, Rayleen — with the telling coda, “bless her heart.” A blues singer (understudy Pam Trotter) croons gospel and other ditties that work in counterpoint to the otherwise-stock melodrama, while gilding the comedy’s theological frame. The clutter of Robert Steinberg’s harrowing set provokes some painful humor, but the play’s essence comes from its perfect cast, so that it unfolds with chiseled nuance, and the authenticity of wizened faces and gentle smiles. Zephyr Theater, 7456 Melrose Ave., L.A.; in rep, call for schedule; thru June 17. (800) 595-4849. (Steven Leigh Morris)

A BED AND A BAR The music. The slang. The characters’ and audience members’ prowess with cell phones — there’s nothing like a comedy about young love to keep the monocled theater critic tethered to contemporary America. However, while Carlos Javier Castillo’s play has flashes of zippy dialogue (press materials tout him as “the Mexican Mamet”) and some wry observations on modern relationships, after a while those relationships start to look a lot like the kind we’re used to seeing onstage. Two couples meet separately at a bar for one-night stands but find themselves falling into the long haul. At this point (roughly when the male characters’ over-the-top comments about pussy, bitches and hos get stale), the story itself falls for traditional, purple badinage about commitment and loneliness, and loses its comedic bling. Gloria Gifford lightly directs a double-cast, shoestring production (actors at the “bar” pour their own drinks out of a bottle), but moves things swiftly across set designers Neita and Dayton’s spartan set, which is inexplicably bookended downstage by a crucifix and a flashlight. On the night I attended, Shaun Baker’s performance as smooth-talking club prowler Christian was easily the show’s biggest charm; that evening’s bill also included Chad Doreck, Anaisabel Mercado, Kimberly Demarse and Joseph Eid as a fifth-wheel character who seems to represent the latest in male dandyism but whose skinny leather tie, cassette tapes and use of pay phones was oddly anachronistic. GGC Theater, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru July 1. (800) 595-4849. (Steven Mikulan)

Related Stories

• After Murder of L.A. Fan, SFPD to Go Undercover in Dodgers Gear
  September 26, 2013
• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an Unlikely Oscar Winner
  July 11, 2013
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
  August 22, 2013
• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including an All-Female Hamlet
  September 12, 2013
• Theater to See in L.A. This Week, Including Watson and Holmes, Together Again
  June 27, 2013

More About

• Cornelius Schnauber
• Richard Wagner
• Adria Tennor
• Theater
• Theatrical Plays

GO ELIZABETH REX Playwright Timothy Findley’s exuberantly ambitious flight of fancy wonders what would have happened if Queen Elizabeth I had spent the night in a barn with Shakespeare and his acting company while waiting for word that her betraying lover, The Earl of Essex, had succumbed to the executioner’s ax. The highly overwrought but enjoyably literate text pits Elizabeth (Karesa McElheny) against pox-ridden, homosexual actor Ned (David H. Ferguson), who plays all of the Bard’s leading women. The two spar over gender definitions as the rest of the company stand amazed that the monarch would engage with such a creature at all. All of the performers are intense in character and perfectly articulate in their several differentiated dialects. Director Robert Mammana gives his actors permission to chew scenery untethered, and it pays off. A. Jeffrey Schoenberg’s perfect period costumes, along with Dana Moran William’s heavy wooden set, are both treats. NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru June 25. (818) 508-7101, Ext. 5. (Tom Provenzano)

IRMA & EMMA/RICHARD & FELIX Two short works by locally based German playwright Cornelius Schnauber examine the last days of three people. In Irma & Emma, a one-act very similar to David Storey’s Home, two senile old ladies confined to a nursing home recall their lives in scrambled memories. Opinionated Irma (Laura James) has been married several times and confuses her husbands with her son and her father. Also, she enjoys decrying sex. Emma (Dorothy Constantine), a much gentler soul, forgets most everything not long after hearing or saying it, save for her fondly remembered life as a farmer’s wife. In a work filled with non sequiturs, Schnauber is clearly reaching for Beckett-like profundity, but his obvious, generic pronouncements fall far short. James and Constantine throw themselves into their roles despite the banality of the dialogue, and director Louis Fantasia basically leaves everyone alone. Richard & Felix, despite its title, is a monologue, in which Richard Wagner on his dying day talks to the unseen ghost of Felix Mendelssohn and begs to be understood. But Schnauber has imbued his Wagner with too much self-consciousness, to say nothing of a post-Holocaust sensibility regarding anti-Semitism. As Wagner, Fantasia looks nothing like the composer, but his stentorian delivery conveys the right authority. Starting June 1, Don DeForest Paul assumes the role. Met Theater, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru June 25. (323) 957-1152. (David Mermelstein)