STAGE REVIEW : ‘Women’ at the Callboard Theatre

“Women,” at the Callboard, is another entry in the genre of plays (see “I’m Not Rappaport” or “Duck Variations”) about two old men who sit on a park bench and talk, talk, talk.

This time, the men are Mexican-American, the park is in East Los Angeles, the ostensible subject is women, and the unmentioned subject is an affair that one of the men had with the other’s wife, long ago.

Playwright Rafael Bunuel (son of film maker Luis Bunuel) demonstrates that the male sexual straitjacket displayed in, say, “Carnal Knowledge,” transcends cultures and generations.

But this isn’t much of a play, at least not in Ivan J. Rado’s staging. It’s in two acts--one too many. The two actors, Carlos H. Cantu and Ray Victor, don’t have the look of lifelong friends who grew up together; Victor looks considerably younger than Cantu.

Nor did they sound secure with their lines last Thursday. They failed to arouse the intended laughter (although the audience on that rainy night was so tiny that there wasn’t much of a chance for the comic momentum to build).

At 8451 Melrose Place, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m., through Dec. 25 (no performance Dec. 24). Tickets: $11-$16.50; (213) 465-0070.