Alan Ayckbourn is not only our most prolific working playwright but he is often our most innovative in form as well. There is a delightful concept at work with this futuristic comedy, as former film director Chandler (Chris Winfield) is now relegated to directing a cheesy TV series, using robotic actors, or "actoids." But the secondary actoid, nicknamed Jacie (Katie Kocis), who plays a nurse on Hospital Hearts, captures the imagination of Adam (William Joseph Hill), a relative of the network's head honcho, who secretly teaches Jacie comedy and is writing a project for his newly found automaton love interest.
The play does not reach its own, er, comic potential until the second act, when Adam and Jacie are on the run and there are uproarious bits about him emptying her digested food under a restaurant table, as well as the use of a garment bag as fashion statement. The role of Jacie is clearly a tour de force for the right performer, with constant asides from previous performances by the robotic actor. Kocis does solid work, especially while whipping Adam around during a goofy dance sequence to a cover band playing ZZ Top. But Ayckbourn writes in a familiar theme -- of a robot gaining human emotions -- and there is no scientific explanation for how Jacie enters this new territory; Kocis has not figured out a way to gradually portray this either.
Director Stan Mazin does an impressive job with a large group of often double-cast players, many of whom are far too broad, most especially Hill. Most effective here are Lareen Faye, deliciously nasty as Carla, the sexually voracious, imperious, and effete regional network exec, whose spurned lust over Adam turns her into a hilarious harpie. Oona Mekas captures our attention as an amusingly snotty, kept younger woman. She is double-cast with Kocis as Jacie, and one wonders about her handling of that demanding role. By the end of the play, Ayckbourn sets us up for a serious moment, then ruptures it with a happy ending, in which Jacie suddenly becomes an exec, not an actor. It is a puzzling choice, but with the playwright's many funny ideas, the work has potential aplenty, even if the overall opportunity is somewhat squandered.
Presented by and at the Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre,
10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood.
Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Mar. 28-May 18.
(818) 700-4878.