Hats Off to Director Sossi

“Three Top Hats,” a 1932 play by Spaniard Miguel Mihura, described by artistic director Ron Sossi as “a magical comedy,” kicks off the 1988 season at the Odyssey, now in its 19th year.

“This (is) a classic in Europe,” Sossi said. “It was a big influence on Ionesco, the first play of Western European origins to mix a touch of the absurd: It has quirky moments that deviate from romantic comedy.” The story is set in a sleepy, conservative hotel that is visited by an international vaudeville troupe. A young man who’s about to be married and is at the hotel that night is swept up in revels that make him wonder if he wants to run away with them.

The pre-revolutionary setting “can be a metaphor for what was about to happen in Spain. The hotel is kept almost like a museum, a monument to old Spain, and the young man could be a metaphor for Spain coming into the modern world. It’s kind of a mix of Capra and Fellini--delightfully comic and romantic, but with a touch of mystery. It’s a simple story, but tricky to do: it requires the actors to work in a stylized, quick, farcical way. That’s not the American, naturalistic, Actors Studio acting style. It’s more sophisticated, a bit of Noel Coward.”

A further challenge for the 16-person company is the fact that it comprises of two groups: The theater’s Latino unit and a core of Ensemble players Sossi assembled for “Voyage to Arcturus” (1985). The result is “a really Hispanic influence--and a few WASPs. So we’re calling ourselves ‘LAAFO’ (Latin Actors and a Few Others).”

What are the qualities he aims for in a production?

“The most important thing is that it works on a dramatic, theatrical, entertainment level. Second is that it works on an intellectual level: (that) people understand what the author’s trying to say. Third is what metaphors might be going on in a less obvious way. We’ve gone through a string of plays this season--’Hunger and Thirst,’ ‘The Cage’ and ‘The Shoemakers’--which were esoteric, philosophical, experimental, obscure. This is much more accessible.”

And hit-worthy? “I sure hope so,” he said. “We could use a hit.”

Politics set the stage for Jeremy Lawrence’s “Arsenals,” opening Saturday at Theatre Forty. But is it political?

“The central character is Frances Berman, who was taught to be a good communist by her father in the ‘30s--and now is a neo-conservative in the ‘80s, about to be appointed to a position in the Reagan Administration,” said the playwright. “Back into her life come her younger brother and sister who accuse her of betraying their father’s ideals.”

Lawrence was on the phone from Buffalo’s Arena Stage where he is performing in “Isn’t It Romantic” and where “Arsenals” had its premiere. “Arsenals” is his first play; since completing it in 1982, he has written two more. “Till I wrote this, I’d been writing musicals with Jeff Rizzo (“Jailbirds on Broadway”),” he said. “The more I got into this, I realized, ‘This isn’t a musical, it’s a play.’ About people . It’s too easy to make it a political play--it’s not. It’s too easy to make it a nuclear play--it’s not. Also, as a member of the liberal left, it was an opportunity to deal with neo-conservatives and the drift of the country toward the right.” He thinks he has succeeded in being fair. “Neo-conservatives have come up to congratulate me.”

LATE CUES: Also opening are “Wearing Dad’s Head” at the Wallenboyd, today; “A Day in the Life” and “The War in Heaven” at Taper, Too and “V And V Only” at South Coast Rep on Friday. A 24-hour free marathon reading of Leon Uris’ “Trinity” takes place at the Grove Amphitheater Saturday.

Also Saturday are “Shalom ‘88” (Wilshire Ebell), the Actors Gang in “Freaks” (Tiffany), “Groundlings: The White Album” (Groundlings Theatre), “Blind With No Legs” (Flight Theatre) and “Mother’s Day Always Falls on Sunday” at the Whitefire.

And for those who have missed them so far, the funny duo of Jeanette Collins and Mimi Friedman, “Canned Laughter,” is playing at the Lex Theatre Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays, 10:30 p.m.

CRITICAL CROSSFIRE: Rob Sullivan’s “Just So” at the Cast Theatre, a “Rashomon”-type reflection on a couple’s breakup, elicited the following remarks:

Said Robert Koehler in The Times: “It’s a fiction about a fiction about something that may or may not have happened, reminiscent of writing by Donald Barthelme and William Gass--without the poetry. Sullivan’s concept is a chess-like game, yet his dialogue and character interplay is stunningly banal.”

Drama-Logue’s Lee Melville’s found it “a Pirandello exercise”: “The clever playwright has devised a game to play with his audience. As long as Sullivan stays ahead of his audience, it is fascinating, but it runs out of originality halfway through and continues longer than the piece warrants.”

From Ezrha Jean Black in the L.A. Weekly: “Sullivan has split the emotional/perceptual field here into characters (real or imagined), as well as the audience, back and forth across boundaries that shift with each new replaying and reinterpretation of the scene.’ ”

Said Jane Galbraith in Daily Variety: “It tries too hard to be a funny absurdist comedy, but is instead a forced staging that is more a pretender to absurdist theater. The 90-minute one-act is colored from beginning to end with a wash of contrivance that has no deeper meaning beyond what is superficially acted out on stage.”

Last, from Mike Brozda in the Reader: “The acting by all four cast members is rich, complex and exquisitely sensitive to both the profanity and the elusive beauty of our lives. The only problem with this show is it needs to shed about 15 minutes of running time.”