‘Insignificance’ at Al’s Bar; ‘Jonin’ ’ at Harman Avenue Theater; ‘Much Ado’ by Group Repertory; ‘Conspicuous Consumption’ at Cast

It’s a fascinating conceit of modern playwrights, this bringing together of unlikely cohorts to thresh out philosophical conundrums, and few have carried off the trick better than Terry Johnson in the West Coast premiere of his “Insignificance” at Al’s Bar.

It’s a talky little play, but that’s just fine when the talk is lucid and witty, when the intelligence and poetry of the language so well define the pawns in the game and illuminate the author’s themes.

The validity of existence is the theorem in question and the premises are provided by four minds of undoubted intelligence, albeit hampered by their own solipsism.

Their identities are only slightly veiled by their namelessness in the program. The Professor is an accurate Einstein, exuding goodness and desperation in Dana Gladstone’s wealth of detail; the searching, troubled mind of Marilyn Monroe is well outlined in Sandra Bogan’s Actress; her husband of the moment, the Ballplayer, is a joy to watch in the not-so-dumb reality of Robert Lesser’s portrait, and Matt Roe is as greasy and flannel-mouthed as he can be as the Joe McCarthy-cloned Louisiana Senator.

Through the guidance of director Brian Nelson, their summit meeting in a crummy 1953 Manhattan hotel room is an example of what ensemble playing should be, honoring text and texture with affection and integrity, and fully appreciating the humor inherent in Johnson’s difficult and intricate black comedy. It’s a play that has to be listened to, but the effort is rewarded in this production.

At 305 S. Hewitt St., Tuesday and Wednesday , 8 p.m., Tickets: $7; (213) 285-8170.

‘Jonin’ ’

Jonin’ is a buzz word descriptive of the act of teasing with a patina of cruelty, a sort of Don Rickles act of everyday survival. Sometimes it can have tragic results, as in Gerard Brown’s drama at the Harman Avenue Theater, a well-crafted play about growing older and wiser among a group of fraternity brothers in their senior year at a black college in Washington. These kids are past masters at peer-baiting and make a sport of it.

Education seems secondary in this dorm, as it always does when a playwright glances back at his college years; girls (in most cases) are high priority, followed closely by the establishment of personality territories the boys will take with them into the real world.

But playwright Brown doesn’t dig deeply enough into some of the questions the situation brings up. It’s a sharp play within its lights, but those lights could have covered a wider, richer and more valuable area.

Under Stanley Bennett Clay’s brisk and resonant direction, each actor connects well with the core of his character. Gregory Travis takes his ultra-cool Duffy far beyond the character’s parameters. Eugene Williams and Donald Willis manage fine shading as animals who bring about the ultimate Jonin’ that destroys the vulnerable and fated Eddie of Craig Thomas. The fine cast includes Kristoff St. John as the most promising Steve, Dawn Comer as his girlfriend, Dwight Donaldson as a student from Africa, and Rugg Williams as a homosexual who mostly studies the floor honcho, Ronald Lawrence.

At 522 N. La Brea Ave., Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m., through Sept. 24. Tickets: $20; (213) 480-3232.

‘Much Ado About Nothing’

It’s a shame that the promise of Group Repertory’s revival of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy is only partially kept. When the lights come up, Nisa Kellner’s delightful costumes and director Patricia Lee Willson’s bouncing-ball tempos bode well for the evening. The period seems late 19th Century, and the action seems to take place somewhere between Palermo and Smyrna. The players, for the most part, abandon attempts at wrestling with iambic pentameter, opting for a natural tone that fits Willson’s concept.

Yet only the antic battles of Beatrice (Whitney Vale) and Benedick (Bert Rosario) really come to life in the production. Their ease with the words in a decidedly anachronistic interpretation and the obvious delight they take in their scenes together are totally winning; they could be Sam Levene and Cass Daley romping as the bickering lovers, and it works. David Stifel’s Dogberry also has some honest and funny moments, but the rest of the company is defeated, even in Willson’s valid unclassical treatment.

vl,2 At 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, Fridays through Sundays at 8 p.m. indefinitely. Tickets: $12; (818) 769-PLAY.

‘Conspicuous Consumption’

Shawn Schepps’ foray into the problems of weight at the Cast Theater is sadly weightless. The central figure Sarah, played by the playwright, is obsessed by her weight, overwrought by her lack of romance and fascinated by a co-worker whose slimness leaves Sarah by the side of the road in more ways than one. She tries pills, diet, aerobics et al., and nothing works.

The play’s concerns are forthright and honest but, like a meringue that holds its peaks well, the play collapses on contact. The impression that lingers is that of a weight-loss commercial kidded on “Saturday Night Live.” There is more potential nourishment in the subject than the playwright has given the actress to digest, and Schepps’ performance is too shallow to encourage much empathy.

The most promising moments concern a handsome stud (a nicely detailed Hank Azaria) who really digs Sarah’s more-than-comfortably-upholstered bones, but his attraction to her, for some odd reason, only sends her up the wall and back to her therapist. A play about that would make a stronger statement on Schepps’ problem.

Kyle Heffner, Maureen Teefy, John Zarchen, Elizabeth Hanley and Eric Poppick effectively fill out the catalogue of those driving Sarah to distraction.

At 804 N. El Centro Ave., Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m., through Oct. 4. Tickets: $12; (213) 462-0265.