Theater Reviews

Including The Chronicles of Steve: The Bossy Bottom, Defiance and this week's pick, Dogeaters.

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Monday, Jan 22 2007

The Chronicles of Steve: The Bossy Bottom (Photo by Chuck Castlebury)

Dogeaters (Photo by Craig Schwartz)

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WINTERTIME Love stories are rarely more interesting than the lovers in question, as seen in this ho-hum production of Charles L. Mee’s disappointingly commonplace farce. It begins when a young couple named Jonathan (Joe Hendrix) and Ariel (Kelsey Ann Wedeen) escape for a weekend to his parents’ secluded retreat. Madly in love, the pair’s happiness begins to unravel after Jonathan’s mother, Maria (Lynn Odell), and her French paramour, Francois (Terry Tocantins), appear, followed by Maria’s bisexual husband, Frank (Scott McKinley), and Frank’s insecure boyfriend, Edmund (Brandon Clark). Jealousy already brews among this neurotic middle-aged quartet; it spirals out of control after the flirtatious Francois baselessly hints at a prior liaison with Ariel. Beneath the froth Mee toys with the grand themes of love and death, but the irony and wit found in so much of his other work are only sparingly evident here. Under Joe Jordan’s direction, the action lacks the precision and timing that make this type of comedy crackle. Tocantins, as chief instigator and gasbag, flaunts a deplorable accent to go with over-the-top histrionics. Among the ensemble, only McKinley’s conflicted family man snagged my interest with an authentic humanity. Alas, designer Dan Mailley’s set, a winter fantasia, augurs a magic that’s never displayed. SACRED FOOLS THEATER, 660 N. Heliotrope Dr., Hlywd.; perfs Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Feb. 24. (310) 281-8337. (Deborah Klugman)