Do Not Disturb is noteworthy for the efficient way it crams five one-act plays into a brisk, intermissionless 75 minutes. It helps, of course, that they all take place in the same setting: a generic hotel room.
The scripts themselves, written by members of a playwrights collective known as Write Club NYC, are fairly slight but exhibit a commitment to emotional veracity and a flair for engaging dialogue. The first three offerings in the program are little more than neatly written curtain raisers. In The Other Shoe by Benjamin T. Scott, a married couple, having just attended a friend's wedding, worry that their own union has reached a dead end. Knives and Spoons Go on the Right by Carey Crim and Room 407 by Jeffrey James Keyes are both marked by a touch of the supernatural.
Things take on more dramaturgical heft with the last two scripts, together presenting contrasting looks at the institution of marriage. In Oh! California!, Lewis (Ryan Murray) and Craig (Timothy Sekk), two gay men on the second week of their honeymoon, argue as to whether their marriage should allow sex with other partners or be bound by the conventions of monogamy. Playwright Peter Macklin earnestly explores whether there's a difference between "making love" and "having sex."
In Geoffrey Scheer's After the Ball, the fun goes out of a bachelor party when the stripper hired for the evening takes an emergency call from her young daughter and leaves. Empathizing with the stripper's plight, three of the four partygoers are thrown into a funk, but insensitive bachelor Josh (Derek Peith), who arranged the entertainment, accuses his buddies of being feminist wusses. He then gets an earful from his pals as to what marriage and wives mean to them.
All the plays get commendable renderings by the company of 11 actors under four directors. True to its title, Do Not Disturb may never deeply disturb or excite, but you have to credit it as a well-executed showcase for promising writing talents and committed performers.
Presented by Write Club NYC at 59E59 Theaters, 59 E. 59th St., NYC. July 31-Aug. 10. Tue.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 3:30 p.m. (212) 279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com.