STAGE REVIEW : ‘Last Good Word’ Proves as Sodden as Life Itself

“The Last Good Word” at the Cast is a fascinating if grueling instance of too much theatrical realism.

The dramatic situation is a romantic breakup. The man (Robert Hummer) is going through hell. The woman (Nadine Van Der Velde) appears to be treating him badly but she is helplessly smitten with another man.

The trouble with the production is that director John Pappas, presumably with the approval of playwright Jack Hollingsworth, creates a tone too lifelike for its own good. The result is a sodden production instead of one larger than life.

What should be a black comedy becomes a leaden drama. Hummer, for instance, captures with feeling the portrait of a floundering nice guy, a 38-year-old lighting salesman, whose life has been reduced to one of confusion and silent pain. These moments particularly become alive in encounters with his boss (Hennen Chambers), an architect (a vivid turn by Barry Livingston) and his mother (Pamela Gordon).

But torpor sets in because the play lacks momentum, pace, blood, passion. In short, if life is often exactly as it’s portrayed here--even to voices occasionally so low that you want to yell, “Project!”--the stage still demands theatricality, focus, even that much-abused word, magic. You won’t find it here.

The opening moments perfectly anticipate this weakness. Our anti-hero and his best buddy (played by director Pappas, who delivers the show’s strongest performance) are drinking beer, smoking pot and ruminating about what a mess life is. The scene is so real it almost forces you to nod off and signals the seeming lassitude to come.

Events are not helped by particularly threadbare props and a set and lighting design (by Erika Bradberry) devoid of imagination, deficit spending notwithstanding. One supporting actor, Richard Robinson Brown, contributes welcome relief as a man in a bar whose wisdom is richly engaging.

This play, incidentally, was initially developed in a workshop conducted by playwright John Steppling before moving on to a reading in the Cast’s Foundry series for Developing Playwrights.

Performances are at 800 El Centro Ave., Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m., through July 27. Tickets: $8; (213) 462-0265.