FRINGE FESTIVAL : STAGE REVIEWS : 1-ACT TRIO AT FIFTH ESTATE

If the Fringe festival has been a grab-bag affair, nothing better epitomizes it than the one-act trio at Fifth Estate Theatre, “Missing Persons.” All three are incomplete in every way--as character studies, as dramas or as insights into our endless need for human contact.

Bill Bremer’s “Siege” (he also directed) is typical: He sets up a situation where Al (Robert Dean Kozak) is in self-imposed exile from women and then must decide to rejoin or not rejoin the human race. Bremer doesn’t know how to resolve the set-up, and his piece is nothing more than an exercise in dialogue writing.

So is “5th and CPS,” though writer-director Kathleen Mazzola makes a bit more effort at sketching what characters she has. Katinka (Gina Francis) is a not-so-struggling playwright, Lorrai1852121128glamorous star, and though these old friends seem to have nothing in common anymore, their careers are linked. They face off, they trade verbal blows, they hug each other. Lawrence hasn’t a drop of glamour, and the women’s conflict is so facilely resolved that it carries no resonance.

Mazzola’s “Person” is a long, tortured examination of a young woman’s thoughts and emotions that mixes equal portions of Freud and the Bible. Louise (Kelly Mahan) spats with her brother (Kerrigan Mahan, Kelly’s actual brother), but does she ever miss him when his plane crashes. A bad idea--personifying her feelings (i.e. Mazzola herself plays “Angry”)--leads to the worse idea of giving them a wealth of playing time. We are the poorer for it.

Performances are at 1709 Kenmore Ave. on Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m., until Thursday. Tickets: $10; (213) 666-0434.

THE BARD

There oughta be a law. . . .

The ruination of Shakespeare’s work is by now an L.A. tradition, but Long Beach’s Found Theatre has taken things a step further, well, down. Rather than destroy a single play, or do a satirical treatment (all the rage in the Fringe), this company has actually written an original biographical treatment of the Bard’s life, inserted scenes and lines from his canon, candy-coated it all with musical passages, and decid1701060724playgoers.

The title? “Cosmic Bill in Kodachrome.”

Someone left the lens cap on.

The ill-spoken ensemble of Tim Cornelius, Virginia DeMoss, Cynthia Galles, Joyce Hackett, Diana Kenlow, Rick Lovell, Kay Richey and Patrick Rodriguez stomps and gallops and trips its way through Bill’s life as if he were a Beastie Boy (Ben Jonson does a rap routine about how overrated Bill is).

What they do to Bill’s work is jaw-dropping in its inanity. Hamlet plays pinball. Romeo and Mercutio are bickering bikers. We’re talking update city.

Composer Alice Secrist, co-composer Dweighn Secrist and co-lyricist Galles concoct what can only be described as disco Irish folk/blues, played on a tinny Casio keyboard. None of it has anything to do with the stage action, which in turn has nothing to do with Shakespeare.

Like we said, there oughta be a law. . . .

Performances are at 251 East 7th St., Long Beach, on Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., through Oct. 31. Tickets: $3-$6; (213) 433-3363.