STAGE REVIEWS : REMARKABLE LEADS GIVE ‘TWO BOYFRIENDS’ POWER

“Andrea’s Got Two Boyfriends” at the Forum Theatre in Laguna Beach inhabits fragile territory, managing a sympathetic but unsentimental study of three retarded young adults exiled to a board-and-care facility in Upstate New York.

Stop-Gap, a drama therapy organization, has imported the affecting Los Angeles Theatre Unit production directed by Constance Grappo to Orange County for seven performances. Its impact lies in David Willinger’s unsparing script and three remarkable lead performances.

The play consists of a collection of scenes plucked from the daily routine at Crystal Park Facility and loosely connected by the comments of the narrator, a staff counselor named Mike. With Mike as the tour guide through this claustrophobic landscape, the audience meets the funny, infuriating, endearing 25-year-old Andrea and her two pals, Richie and Freddie--memorably brought to life by Tabi Cooper, Lanny Thomas and Chris Pass--and comes to know the perimeters of their world and their attempts to find their own niches in that world.

It is more difficult to get a fix on Mike, played by Tom Fisher. Mike displays the frustration, frayed patience and mandatory sense of humor that are part of his job, but most fascinating (and only briefly touched on) is a glimpse of his fear that he has been on the job too long.

The jerky, abrupt rhythm of the script takes some getting used to, and it often proves a distraction. There also is some obvious consciousness-raising going on here, through Mike’s informative narration and Richie’s poignant monologues, but the very physical, beautifully articulated performances by Cooper, Thomas and Pass are what give this show its power.

“Andrea’s Got Two Boyfriends” will play through Saturday on the grounds of the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. For information, call (714) 722-7727.