The Coarse Acting Show and Dirty Filthy Love Story, Reviewed

Not so Chekhov's The Cherry Sisters, which derives considerable physical humor from the ancient footman Piles (Brendan Broms) trying to plug a samovar's leaking nozzle with his finger during a crowd scene, when he's needed on the other side of the stage.

There are two stars in Rob Mersola's new comedy, Dirty Filthy Love Story, which just opened at Rogue Machine. The first is David Mauer and Hazel Kuang's set. In a coup de theatre, the entire back wall of what looks like a cardboard-cutout living room drops forward and slams to the ground, revealing the home to be the garbage-bag, stacked-boxes and strewn-clothes rat's nest of the play's hoarder-protagonist, Ashley (Jennifer Pollono).

PHOTO BY JOHN FLYNN

Burl Moseley in Dirty Filthy Love Story

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Sacred Fools Theater

660 N. Heliotrope Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Category: Theaters

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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Rogue Machine Theatre

5041 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019

Category: Performing Arts Venues

Region: Mid-Wilshire/ Hancock Park

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More About

• Michael Green
• William Shakespeare
• Rob Mersola
• Theatrical Plays
• Theater

The other star is Joshua Bitton's understated performance as the mentally challenged garbage man Hal, hired by Ashley's next-door neighbor Benny (Burl Moseley) to clean the trash from her side yard so he can sell his home. The sexually charged romance between Hal and Ashley grows increasingly macabre, homicidal and strained, and the play's main joke really turns on the passionate, nihilistic attraction between them.

Pollono and Moseley were too screechy at the performance reviewed, under Elina de Santos' absorbing, sitcom-style direction. And I couldn't understand why, in one scene, Benny would fail to defend himself against the lovers, who have targeted him for death. After all, they've already struck him with a frying pan that's now sitting in front of him on the couch. But when he regains consciousness, rather than pick up the weapon, he merely rants about his plight. Such details can be worked out. This is a world premiere, after all.

Mainly, though, the play is about its premise and nothing more. With transitional songs referring to a world under siege by garbage, this is a work that could actually be about something. Either it needs to be as thin as farce, or reconsidered more deeply.

THE COARSE ACTING SHOW | By Michael Green | Presented by Sacred Fools Theater Company, 660 N. Heliotrope Drive, Hlywd. | Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 2 & 9, 7 p.m.; through Dec. 15 | (310) 281-8337 | sacredfools.org

DIRTY FILTHY LOVE STORY | By Rob Mersola | Rogue Machine Theatre, 5041 W. Pico Blvd. | Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 8 & 10 p.m.; through Dec. 29 | (855) 585-5185 | roguemachinetheatre.com