‘Buck’ at the Heliotrope; ‘Dead Know Burbank’ at Actors’ Alley Too; One-Acts at Margo Albert Theater; ‘Dark Night’ at Circle Rep West

Tabloid TV--or murder reenactment shlock--is the subject of playwright Ron Ribman’s “Buck,” at the Heliotrope Theatre.

The setting is a grungy cable-TV studio basement where a frenetic director and his feverish cameraman exploit would-be actors and bums they pull in off the streets for the greater exploitation of real-life crimes.

Ribman’s scabrous comedy has verbal force, a moral imperative, and provocative visual imagery (a shuddering freight elevator with a blinding light is downright portentous). Director Laura Fox’s production, in the Heliotrope’s new arena space, is deliberately played over the top.

Ebbe Roe Smith as a desperate director and his raucous assistant (Scott Burkholder) are loud, full-throttle portrayals. Their corporate bosses (Gregg Daniel, Arthur Malet) are unctuous in their chilly intimidation. And the murder re-enactment scenes, which are mirrored on studio monitors, feature horrific violence.

The debasement and strangulation of an ambassador’s wife in a ritzy restaurant by a Third World waiter is brutally comical (Sonna Chavez and the feral Raymond Cruz, whose presence is electric). And the knifings of a sweet barfly and a dazed wino (Carol Barbee and Biff Yeager, in genuinely innocent characterizations) blur the line between reality and simulation as the cameraman shouts: “These bastards can’t tell the difference between what we’re shooting and what is real.” Credit Ribman with dramatizing a television sub-genre before it became popular.

At 660 N. Heliotrope Ave., Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m., until Dec. 3. Tickets: $10-$12; (213) 466-1767.

‘Dead Know Burbank’

Despite reports that he’s dead, William Faulkner is still holed up in a writer’s cubicle at Warner Bros., working off an indentured servitude for $300 lousy bucks a week writing scripts about Pharaohs on a manual typewriter. A TV writer becomes his office neighbor and finds Faulkner next to a bottle of Jack Daniels, sleeping one off on a couch.

This Twilight Zone, what-if premise is a quaint diversion, earmarked by a touching performance by Faulkner lookalike William Raulerson in playwright Peter Lefcourt’s “Only the Dead Know Burbank,” at Actors’ Alley Too.

Faulkner explains to the incredulous young writer (Gene Freedman) that he is “a man who couldn’t afford to die” but he is getting awfully tired. In the process, Faulkner’s “mute wisdom” leaves an impact on the TV writer.

Director Dona Hardy’s production must work off of a shabby set, and the TV writer’s character lacks a redemptive quality. But Raulerson’s Faulkner is a beguiling figure.

At 4334 Van Nuys Blvd. , Sherman Oaks, Mondays through Wednesdays, 8 p.m., through Nov. 16. Free; (818) 986-2278.

‘Virgin,’ ‘How Else’

Plaza de la Raza in Lincoln Park in East Los Angeles is finally doing Latino theater again. Nuevo L.A. Chicano TheatreWorks is producing two one-acts, winners of a statewide Mexican-American playwriting contest.

The productions are an encouraging sendoff for a regular diet of new Latino plays at the lakeside Margo Albert Theater. The acting is vibrant and the plays tackle material (racial, religious and sexual) that is adventuresome and relevant to the Latino community.

“At Least She’s Still a Virgin,” by Richard Adame Gutierrez, deals with a widowed Latino mother’s hurt and resistance to change when her son brings home a Jewish girl he’s taking to the high school prom. The fireworks between the insulted and even catatonic mom and the independent-minded son (Martha Velez and Jaime Gomez) bristles under Sara Fuentes’ direction. But the play needs faster acceleration.

Evelina Fernandez’s “How Else Am I Supposed to Know I’m Alive” turns into a charmer (after taking too much time to get going). It’s an odd-couple comedy about two middle-aged women friends (brash, brassy Lupe Ontiveros and dim, frumpy Angela Moya) dishing over a kitchen table.

The woman you wouldn’t expect confides the results of an impetuous one-night stand. The director, Jay Rodriguez, is a key figure behind TheatreWorks.

At 3540 N. Mission Rd., Fridays through Sundays, 8 p.m., until Nov. 19. Tickets: $5; (213) 223 2475.

‘Dark Night’

That’s “dark night,” as on theatrically dead Mondays and Tuesdays. In this instance, at the Groundlings, Circle Rep West, the Los Angeles arm of the Circle Repertory Theatre of New York, presents a mesmerizing one-woman work, “Chicks,” in tandem with a seldom amusing, two-character one-act, “Mr. and Mrs. TV.”

Patricia Lindley is absorbing, loving and burned out in Grace McKeaney’s “Chicks” as a kindergarten teacher unraveling real-life grist for her class of 5-year-olds. Kelly Connell’s direction in this hourlong danse macabre nicely plays off the unseen three-footers in the class. This is an unorthodox piece of writing and acting.

By contrast, the shorter “Mr. and Mrs. TV,” by Doug Gower and Dan Bonnell, is fundamentally non-verbal. The basic image is a rocking water bed with a TV perched at the foot of it. But the satire wears thin. Actors Tom Isbell and Kristina Oster are the bedazed urban married couple zonked into oblivion with TV Guide, TV dinners and push-button sex. James Eckhouse’s staging makes the bed the star of the show.

At 7307 Melrose Ave., Mondays and Tuesdays, 8 p.m., through Nov. 21. Suggested donation: $12; (213) 466-1767.