Review: Actors shine, story lags in ‘Open House’ at the Skylight

A conservatively attired man sits in a mostly bare room reading a newspaper. Minutes pass. Blackout.

That’s the opening scene of “Open House,” Shem Bitterman’s world premiere play at the Skylight, and it’s risky stuff. If underplayed, the sequence could bore to the point of alienation. Overplaying could violate the audience’s sense of reality at a critical juncture.

But then, Bitterman is a risky playwright, a fact well established by his varied body of work, from 1998’s “The Job,” a study of down-and-outers with a murderous bent, to 2010’s “Influence,” a drama à clef about dirty deeds at the World Bank that also premiered at the Skylight.

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Bitterman is a master at dramatizing despair, and the two characters in this claustrophobic “House” exude anxiety from every pore -- an unnerving hint that something is very amiss in this outwardly ordinary microcosm.

Chuck (Robert Cicchini), apparently a fledgling real estate agent, is trying to unload a property near the Beverly Center. The sole prospect at his open house is Martha (Eve Gordon), an attractive but edgy woman who is irritated, then intrigued, then wholly seduced by Chuck’s hard sell.

Steve Zuckerman, astute director of “Influence,” also helms “House” in a masterly staging further buoyed by Chris Moscatiello’s superlative sound and Jeff McLaughlin’s memorable set and lighting.

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Yet Bitterman’s play, while intermittently brilliant, occasionally lapses into the prosaic -- predictable plot segues that seem shopworn, especially considering Bitterman’s proven record for Pinteresque obliquity.

But as a vehicle for two actors at the top of their game, the play never disappoints. Gordon and Cicchini, both Bitterman veterans, deliver performances as gripping as they are disturbing. Gordon is formidable, but Cicchini is so rawly naturalistic we feel like Peeping Toms outside this fateful “House. His Chuck is a Willy Loman-esque failure grasping at the wrong straw -- that final straw that snaps sanity and triggers tragedy.

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“Open House,” Skylight Theatre, 1816½ N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 25. $29 to $34. (702) 582-8587. www.skylighttheatrecompany.com. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.