‘Up South’ at Trinity; ‘Normal’ at Century City; ‘Satch!’ at Center City; ‘Tech Boys’ at Gardner

Is it possible to make a performance piece inspired by Jesse Jackson’s 1988 campaign without Jackson’s character in the performance? Performers Lee Boek and Marlene Rasnick and writer-director Sharon Stricker certainly try in their collaboration, “Up South,” at Trinity Episcopal Church.

A wobbly, barely connected series of nine scenes searches out the aroma of the campaign and its spiritual sources while avoiding any literal-minded hustings drama. “Up South” wants to be a loopy memoir of the (already?) good old days when the mantra was “Run, Jesse, run.”

Unfortunately, this is a performance house built on sand. Boek and Rasnick play two campaign workers in Iowa, warmed by their hostess and frustrated by a potential caucus supporter whose reluctance to help in the caucus is read as her fear of standing up for justice. This is agitprop theater, albeit of a mild variety, so this woman’s side is never really given a hearing. Perhaps she had problems with this particular candidate (in the end, she goes with Jesse).

This reading--if you don’t support Jackson, you must be afraid of something--is at the center of the evening. Were Boek and Rasnick artful in their verbal delivery and movement style, it would be a small hurdle to overcome. They’re not, though Boek sends out strong images in the mind’s eye as he adopts the voice of a besieged clergyman in the redneck South, and reeds player Carle Vickers pours out some beautiful sounds.

At 650 N. Berendo St., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., through Oct. 21. Tickets: $10; (213) 913-1551.

‘Normal Doesn’t Mean Perfect’

“Normal Doesn’t Mean Perfect,” as the title of Don Gordon’s play at the Century City Playhouse reminds us, but does it have to be this imperfect?

Well, there is something perfect about Gordon’s look at a henpecked Orange County husband’s emotional flowering. It’s a perfect case-study for young playwrights on how risky black comedy is, how rife with pitfalls it can be for the author without a clear lay of the land. “Normal” is the theatrical equivalent of a runaway train.

Crudely, Gordon attempts to convince us that the husband (Rusty Hodgkinson), defenseless against his wife’s (Peri Gilpin) military approach to domestic life, would spend long lunch breaks in the park away from his job as a programmer for the Spacelab. Then, we have to buy that the husband falls for the young woman (Elizabeth Enright) who shares his park bench, and she for him, even though Beauty and the Beast had more in common.

Bad beginnings lead to bad ends, including not one but two incredible encounters between the three characters in the park. Director Bill Deluca’s cast tries to stir up some conviction, but the whole operation amounts to hazard duty.

At 10508 W. Pico Blvd., Mondays through Wednesdays at 8 p.m., through Oct. 25. Tickets: $5; (213) 839-3322.

‘Satch!’

“Satch!” isn’t striking them out at the Center City Theatre. In a very curious musical directed by Rai Tasco, Satchel Paige, the greatest pitcher in the history of the Negro League and possibly any league, is reduced to an indecisive athlete fooling around with women and dealing with money offers from other teams.

Alex, the owner of the Chattanooga Black Lookouts (Fritz Houston, replacing Edwin Tucker), has a hard-and-fast rule: latecomers don’t play. Satch (Darn Oldham) shows up late, cocky and drunk with a pair of ladies of the evening on his arm. Will Satch play? Will Satch sign with the owner of a white team, though it means playing in blackface?

Even with the severe restrictions the book (by Ron Daniels) puts on an ideal subject for a musical, even with recorded, drum machine-driven music (by Al Von Johnson and John Daniels) and silly lyrics (by John and Ron Daniels), there remains a potential drama aching to get out. Trying to find it is nearly as difficult as understanding the actors, whose voices are swallowed up in the cavernous confines of this former movie house.

The always lively Vince Isaac provides some clutch as a coach who gets in the game, but he gets no support.

At 4409 W. Adams Blvd., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m., through Oct. 22. Tickets: $9-$15; (213) 734-2498.

‘Tech Boys’

Jeffrey Edward Peter’s staging of Bill Sterritt’s “Tech Boys” begins with a video screening of the trailer for a movie, “Hit Squad Pom Pom Girls.” It’s not even serviceable as bad camp, but it’s a fair warning for the very bad play to follow.

There is no deciphering the twisted relationships and motivations of Sterritt’s characters--two men-boys (Phil Baker, Bill Sehres) hooked on the movies and a woman (Anne Leyden) running away from her homicidal ex-lover. Baker is an impossibly neurotic slob and shut-in, frustrated over the successes of other tech boys, yet Leyden likes him. He doesn’t believe it any more than we do.

The show, combined with the dank Gardner Stage it’s housed in--if the steep, downstairs entrance doesn’t get you, the lumpy seats will--make this one of the city’s most unpleasant theater experiences.

At 1501 N. Gardner St., Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m., through Oct. 21. Tickets: $10; (213) 659-0389.