THEATER REVIEW : SUSHI SKITS SHOWCASE TALENT AT SDSU

Two men sit on chairs on an otherwise bare stage. One wears a bow tie, the other a Mickey Mouse shirt. They pounce from anecdote to anecdote, interrupting each other and arguing, sometimes violently, about everything from politics to fantasy, from the quality of childhood memories to ruminations about the nature of death.

In the absence of personal histories, they seem, despite their different names, like nothing less than the mind at war with itself. Called “Tea for Two at the Burn Ward,” the segment is a difficult opening for a difficult and intriguing four-segment play, “Conversations with the Adversary,” now showing through Sept. 6 at Sushi Gallery.

This world premiere by local playwright Mack Owen also marks the launching of a new theater group, Actors for Actors Theatre Co.

One could hardly ask for a gutsier debut--and one more in keeping with artistic director Larry Sulani’s professed goals for this company.

Sulani, a graduating senior at San Diego State University, wanted a company that would minimize props and present largely modern plays in a fashion that would spotlight the actors.

Also, he wanted to draw from the pool of San Diego State University theater people who, unlike UC San Diego and United States International University theater students, have no professional equivalent of the Mandell Weiss Center for the Performing Arts or the Theatre in Old Town in which to ply their trade.

Not only is the playwright, Owen, a San Diego State University professor, but two of the three actors, Susan Stratton and Sean Leonard, list San Diego State on their biographies. One of the two directors, Paula Duris (the other is Sulani), is working toward her master’s degree there.

And in keeping with Sulani’s primary goal, the plain stage, lighting (by Brett Kelly) and sound (by Sulani) are simplified to set off the actors. The strategy works. Leonard, Stratton and Martin Katz all shine as they verbally and sometimes physically leap to remain the rider and not the ridden in Owen’s complicated and often pyrotechnical monologues and dialogues.

Beginning with “Burn Ward,” the pieces deal with adversaries from within and without. “Coyotes” features Stratton in a monologue about a girl victimized by extraterrestrials. Both are nicely directed by Duris.

In “The Principles of Self-Defense,” directed by Sulani, a self-taught martial arts specialist played with frenetic charm by Martin Katz, gives tips on getting through supermarkets, traffic and other hazards of modern life.

All the above are interesting if in a quirky, perplexing way. They don’t quite prepare one for the extraordinary power of the last piece, “November Sutra,” which is, alone, worth the price of admission.

Directed by Sulani, it is a monologue that evolves into a dialogue as a fashionably dressed woman in white tries to tell an anecdote over the objections of her sometime boyfriend.

While the story is ostensibly a funny tale about a friend’s Buddhist wedding ceremony, it is actually more about what the storytelling tells about the storyteller--and the contentious relationship between her and the man who loves her.

The surgical skill with which Owen strips the layers of skin from his characters is a breathless exercise matched only by the impressive deftness of Stratton as Joan and Leonard as Bert.

Leonard is, by turns, comic and touching as he segues from playing the fool to baring his heart. But it is Stratton whose facade undergoes the most startling changes. It is as if her spotless white garments seem sullied at the end--just through the dint of her acting.

There is a fullness to “November Sutra” that makes the clever, earlier pieces seem like brightly colored fragments. If “Sutra” is a promise of things to come, then both the playwright and the company deserve to be watched. Indeed, the main question posed by this production is just what this feisty little troupe will come up with next.

“CONVERSATIONS WITH THE ADVERSARY”

By Mack Owen. Directors are Larry Sulani and Paula Duris. Lighting by Brett Kelly. Sound by Larry Sulani. Stage manager is Sean O’Shea. With Sean Leonard, Martin Katz and Susan Stratton. At 8 p.m. Friday--Sunday through Sept. 6. At Sushi Gallery, 852 8th Ave., San Diego.