A PLAY IN PROCESS : A COMIC HOMEMAKER MYSTIQUE

Doris Baizley’s “Mrs. California”--the second play-in-process on the Mark Taper Forum’s “In the Works ‘85” series--is bound to have a life beyond this event. It’s a comedy about a Los Angeles housewife trying to win the 1955 Mrs. California contest with the help of her pushy best friend, and it has both the pep and the laughs of an old “I Love Lucy” script. Sunday afternoon’s Taper audience got a kick out of it.

But it’s also, and quite frankly, a critique of the 1950s homemaker mystique: the notion that the ideal woman devotes herself to ironing her husband’s shirts, running up aprons on her sewing machine, being a Den Mother for her son’s Cub Scout troop and devising new uses for Borden’s Cream Cheese.

Baizley even suggests that there was a sort of plot afoot to bully women back into the kitchen in those days, lest they get too uppity after their experience of sharing power with men during World War II. For instance, when it’s time for the Mrs. California contestants to tell their proudest moment, our heroine wants to talk about how she saved an entire U. S. Navy convoy as a WAVE code operator. But the judges don’t want to hear “war stories.”

The Taper audience picked up on all this as well, particularly the women. “We can laugh now,” said an older woman during the postplay discussion. “But I lived this.”

Obviously, “Mrs. California” has audience appeal. But the Taper audience had trouble buying some of it. For instance, the scene where the heroine abruptly disowns her girlfriend purely on the suggestion of her gas company sponsor--a man, of course. Was the heroine that much of a wimp? Baizley agreed that the scene needs work.

This viewer also had some questions about the script:

1. Where is Mrs. L. A.’s husband? There’s no evidence that her marriage is in trouble, and her arch-rival, Mrs. San Bernardino, has her husband around for moral support. (Mrs. L.A.’s best friend flirts with him for espionage purposes.)

Where, then, is Mr. L. A.? Possibly at home, minding their little girls. A phone call from him would establish it and allow some funny stuff about his not being able to find the frying pan. If we’re doing sitcom, let’s go for it.

2. Is it credible that Mr. San Bernardino would surrender his shirt to Mrs. L. A.’s best friend, even for rumba lessons?

3. Wouldn’t Mrs. Modesto’s gas company sponsor have warned against wearing a clown suit in the Table Setting competition?

4. Does it matter that Babs, the best friend, is having problems with her traveling salesman husband, Walter? Baizley seems to think she needs to explain why Babs so desperately wants Dot to win. But isn’t it natural to get excited when your neighbor has a chance to become a celebrity?

5. Did people say “I love it!” in Babs’ sarcastic way back in ‘55? Sounds ‘80s.

6. Since the offstage announcer mentions packaged mixes as one of the miracles of modern living, why does Dot give such an air of defiance to the announcement that her Aunt Irma’s Double Chocolate Cake is out of a box?

Not major questions, these. “Mrs. California” is basically in place, and Warner Shook’s actors--especially Deborah May (Dot) and Jean Smart (Babs)--were astonishingly secure on Sunday, considering the amount of business and lines that they’d had to learn in something like 10 days. One of the lessons of this festival may be the wisdom of the quick choice.

This week’s “In the Works” plays are Thomas Babe’s “Planet Fires” (Thursday and Saturday) and Neal Bell’s “Sleeping Dogs” (today, Friday and Sunday.) Information at (213) 410-1062.

PHOTO CALL: It has been asked why we didn’t run a picture of Claudette Colbert with the review of “Aren’t We All?” in Monday’s Times. Because cameras weren’t invited in to the performance, and the handout art was boring.

NO PREMIERE: The Odyssey Theatre has learned that its staging of David Edgar’s “The Prison Diary of Albie Sachs” is not an American premiere or even a West Coast one. The play has been done by the Manhattan Theatre Club and San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre.

‘MRS. CALIFORNIA’

Doris Baizley’s play, presented by New Theatre for Now’s “In the Works ‘85” Festival at the Mark Taper Forum. Director Warner Shook. Set design John Ivo Gilles. Costumes Deborah Dryden. Lighting Paulie Jenkins. Sound Daniel Birnbaum. Dramaturg Corey Beth Madden. With Deborah May, Fred Applegate, Jean Smart, Gregory Itzin, Frances Conroy, Susan Krebs and Sharon Madden.