STAGE REVIEW : New May Not Mean Good as Pair of One-Acts Proves

The struggling Illusion’s New View Theatre in Fullerton continues to offer premieres of works by generally unknown playwrights, mostly from Orange County. The latest offerings are two one-acts--a tract against the death penalty and a look at a young retarded man’s plans to marry.

Illusion’s commitment to new plays is brave, especially in the face of meager ticket sales that founder Jeffrey Ault says might force the theater’s closure. Considering all that, and realizing how much the county needs forums for unexposed writers, it would be great to applaud these one-acts.

Not this time, though. These are awkward pieces: The first is barely a drama at all, and the second is frustratingly underdeveloped.

Lonnie Lincoln’s “Sympathy for the Devil’s Advocate” (directed by Ault) starts off with a middle-aged woman (Irma Lozano, looking too young for the role) sitting down for a nice glass of Kool-Aid when a man (Tim Fedel) comes to the door. She thinks that he’s trying to sell something, but he’s an emissary from Hell--he’s the devil’s advocate.

Lincoln apparently equates the devil with liberal thinking because the advocate sits to the left on every issue. But Lincoln’s thrust throughout “Sympathy” is pro-liberal. Maybe there’s a symbolic dimension to this reversal of attitudes, but it wasn’t clear.

Anyway, the advocate tells the woman that he wants to debate her on this year’s most important question. “Abortion?” she replies, but he says that was last year’s important question (disregarding the historic battle before the U.S. Supreme Court in recent months). This year’s big issue, according to the devil’s advocate, is the death penalty.

Lincoln describes the Betty Crockerish woman as “The Most Typical American,” although she professes a conservatism that approaches fundamentalism. She and the advocate argue--she gets worked up and claims capital punishment is a deterrent; he stays cool and tosses out a numbing litany of statistics meant to show that it isn’t--and no minds get changed.

A failure here is that Lincoln talks about the death penalty but never dramatizes it. In fact, “Sympathy” most seems like a quirky class assignment that Lincoln, a retired college professor, might have given to a social studies class. You know, give me loads of information but try to make it interesting. A debate between George F. Will and Gore Vidal would make for better theater.

Shawn Quirk’s “Slow Like Me,” directed by Walter Brown, at least attempts to bring in some humanity. Andy (Andrew Lowery) is a retarded teen-ager who wants to wed. But his parents (Robert Flyer and Sheri Savage) worry that Andy’s retardation is hereditary and will be passed onto his children.

In highly emotional scenes, the parents fight over their son’s future and hint at the hardships they’ve encountered. There is at least one moving moment here, when Andrew tries to explain his attraction to his girlfriend, hinting that she may be handicapped as well.

But “Slow Like Me” is mostly a lot of hand-wringing without resolution. Andrew is not defined sharply enough, nor are his parents and his relationship to them. It’s also difficult to connect with his girlfriend (who never appears and is only talked about) and her importance to him. A better play might have included the girlfriend.

‘SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE’ and ‘SLOW LIKE ME’

An Illusion’s New View Theatre production of one-acts by Lonnie Lincoln and Shawn Quirk. Directed by Jeffrey Ault and Walter Brown. With Tim Fedel, Irma Lozano, Andrew Lowery, Robert Flyer and Sheri Savage. Plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through Aug. 5 at 3030 Brea Blvd., Fullerton. Tickets: $5. (714) 990-9605.