Confusions

This collection of somewhat interconnected short plays by Alan Ayckbourn, pleasingly staged by John Pleshette, begins and ends with "A Talk in the Park," as characters sit on benches, each desperately wanting to talk, each irate at having to listen. It's a shame the weakest pieces bookend the production, but the middle pieces are literary delights.

In "Mother Figure," Lucy (Mina Badie), a mother numbed to noise and adult proprieties by having so intently focused on her maternal duties, treats her solicitous neighbors Rosemary (Abigail Revasch) and Terry (Steve Wilcox) as children. With no self-awareness, still in her jammies at the end of the day, Lucy offers libations in the form of sippy cups and chocolate cookies. Rosemary, despite her twinset and pearls, succumbs to the mothering and finds the courage to stand up to the childishly brutish Terry. Revasch and Wilcox melt into childlike submission, while Badie sleepily stands her ground.

Next, in "Drinking Companions," Harry (Brendan Hunt), at a hotel bar while on a business trip, ineptly and gauchely tries to seduce a woman (Phoebe James) and then her friend (Revasch). As he becomes more intoxicated, we wonder why the women can't make a quicker escape. Although the mood darkens too much in the middle of the scene, Hunt is convincing as the lothario and so effectively creates a drunken man that we fear he will fall off the stage. James and Revasch silently convey, through glances and body language, an old friendship and new concerns.

The production catches fire with "Between Mouthfuls." We hear only the snippets of conversation a restaurant waiter (Hunt) hears. It's less interesting that the two couples at adjacent tables have various histories with each other; it's more fascinating to hear their tales as the waiter does while he tries to maintain that waiterly veneer.

In "Gosforth's Fête," a mélange of England's country folk gather under a tea tent. As the VIP, Bridget Ann White goes from crisply tidy and proper to mud-stained and electrocuted. Meanwhile Gosforth (Adrian Neil) and Milly (Badie) unwittingly discuss her pregnancy over the loudspeaker, to the comedic shame of her fiancé (Hunt). Badie plays Milly as marvelously insipid; Neil uses a generous handful of hostly qualities—including graciousness, impatience, and rage.

Esther Rydell provides the highly amusing costumes. Joseph Slawinski sets the scenes with the sounds of children squabbling and an increasingly turbulent kitchen, as well as the presumably not functioning microphone that broadcasts excruciatingly personal news across four acres of British countryside.


Presented by and at the Lost Studio, 130 S. La Brea Ave., L.A. Jan. 15–Mar. 7. Fri–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m. (323) 960-5775. www.plays411.com/confusions.