THEATER REVIEWS : ‘The Fairy Garden’ and ‘Dessert’

Wacky is the word that best describes “The Fairy Garden,” the second of the two one-act plays being presented by the Diversionary Theatre, a 1-year-old company devoted to the presentation of gay theater, at the Sushi Performance Gallery through Saturday.

This odd little piece is by Harry Kondoleon. If reality and content are two of those downright tedious things you can take but would far rather leave, you may appreciate the script as a setting for costume jewels in which the actors do the glittering.

As Dagney, the wealthy woman trying to decide between her husband’s money and her latest lover’s body, Sherry Hopwood delivers her lines in a macabre upper-class version of Gracie Allen logic.

When she emerges from the house displaying her husband’s head in an ice bucket and is told to put it back, she responds indignantly, “I can’t. It took a long time to get it off.”

Jeff Carroll excels as the boyfriend so proud of his striptease act that no amount of discouragement will slow him from commencing it. Robyn Samuels is charmingly lighthearted as the singing, materialistic Tinkerbell who explains why diamonds are a fairy’s best friend.

David Lee Carlson offers solid support as the stuffy husband, Boris. Thomas Vegh, who also directed, selflessly burdens himself with the downbeat role of the man trying to make sense of his being abandoned by his gay lover (Jeff Okey in another thankless role). If he wanted sense, he should have found himself another play.

The inspired costumes by John-Bryan Davis make the most of color and style. The lovers who end up together melt together in a sea of blue fabric. Dresses change with a fold and a tug to illustrate a metamorphosis of events. A pull on Dagney’s dress, and Boris’ bloodstains are gone as if they had never been there. A deft hand on the fairy’s dress and Roman disappears to become one with its folds.

Leaving fantasy firmly behind, Philip Real’s “Dessert” is a down-to-earth first-date scenario. Universally familiar in its awkwardness, the fact that the encounter is between a lesbian (Hopwood in a punk get-up) and a would-be lesbian (Samuels in a prim little skirt and buttoned-up blouse) seems almost incidental.

Real provides no great revelations, but under Vegh’s direction the story allows for a considerable amount of charm, particularly from Hopwood. Unfortunately, Samuels, so charming as the fairy in the other play, here extends her character’s high-pitched preciousness so far that one is torn between wanting Hopwood to win her and hoping that she’ll throw her out.

In both plays, the uncredited sets and lighting, like the scripts, please without lingering in the memory. It would be interesting to see what this group could do with a bit more substance.

Performances at Sushi Performance Gallery, 852 8th Ave., at 8 p.m. today-Saturday.