STAGE REVIEW : Solo Performances Bring Off ‘Two Alone’

Sometimes the word monodrama sounds like a contradiction in terms. Too many writers of solo pieces, absorbed by their own voices, neglect the conflict that’s inherent in drama. “Two Alone,” the title of a double bill of monodramas in a rental production at Stages, sounds as if writer Ralph Hunt might have fallen into this trap.

Yet Hunt avoided it. In “L-305,” his first one-man play, the protagonist’s audience (and by extension, the theater audience) is so tangible--and so scorned--that it virtually becomes a second and antagonistic character. “Siamese Twin Kills Brother for Bad Breath,” the second of the pieces, brings the lone character’s argumentative alter ego to life on videotape. It might be called “Duet for One,” if the title weren’t already taken.

In “L-305,” Dan Mason plays a poetry instructor who’s delivering what may be his final lecture. As usual, not many of his students are on hand. But this is no usual day, which becomes obvious when the professor casually produces a gun as one of his audio-visual devices.

It turns out that the man’s life is going haywire. His wife is fooling around, his tenure has been denied, his students are dullards and the school doesn’t even bother to keep his classroom supplied with chalk. This last point just might bother him more than anything else.

Mason is memorably intense and mordantly funny as the teacher at the end of his rope. When he recites poetry, we can understand why someone might want to take his class. But 10 seconds later, we can understand why he won’t be granted tenure. The ending doesn’t work as well as the rest of the piece, but Hunt’s portrait is otherwise unsparing.

After intermission, we meet a very different creature, a small-time hustler who, no doubt, reads the National Enquirer, from which Hunt’s title, “Siamese Twin Kills Brother for Bad Breath,” was taken. This guy likes nothing better than to hole up in his room and watch football on his new and not-paid-for 26-inch TV.

Suddenly, in the midst of a Ohio State football game, this loser’s own image appears on the screen, talking back to himself. Soon, the two sides of the same man are engaging in a spirited debate about his life and future prospects.

This isn’t much more than a staged “Twilight Zone” scene, and its ending isn’t any stronger than that of “L-305.” But Carl Bressler’s performance is pictorially convincing and adeptly timed, and Hunt emerges as a writer worth watching. Not so incidentally, the program reveals that Hunt teaches poetry--at Ohio State.

Guy Giarrizzo directed, with expert contributions by designers Stephen Bennett (sets and lights) and Leonora Schildkraut (sound). Mario Bacich created the “Siamese Twin” video.