STAGE REVIEW : Black Humor With a Heart in Maurice Noel’s ‘Canaan Land’

The voice of playwright Maurice Noel is original. His writing is quirky, surprising and deeply human.

In “Canaan Land,” a trio of one-acts that marks his Los Angeles debut, at the Cast-at-the-Circle Theatre, he finds the humor and heartbreak of people lost in the dark labyrinth of life. He’s also found a director, Joe Mays, who knows the shape of Noel’s work and a company able to give it a startling patina.

“Scarlet Sister Mary” concerns a woman who has deserted her husband and child back home and found contentment of a sort in Manhattan, begging coins in nun’s habit. Roseland is her cathedral, and she met God at Radio City Music Hall.

“Iona Straker” changed her name to Pagan Fury when she became a stripper. Now, she’s long in the tooth and grinding it out in a cheap carnival--the customers holler “Put it back on!” But she finds her troubles pale next to those of Bonnie Lou, whose snake has just died.

The gnawing illness of religious fanaticism supersedes any “Memorial” to a deceased mother when her grown children find themselves trapped forever in the lunatic web of their overpowering Aunt Opal.

Uncomfortable subjects? Not in Noel’s view. He finds them hilariously funny, at least until he twists his scalpel in the final moment of each play. He proves that laughing at ourselves, even in the direst circumstance, is still the best medicine.

Mays has cast the three plays with one eye on the text and the other on the actors’ ability to jump imperceptibly from comedy to pathos without skipping a beat. Lucy Lee Flippin gives style and richness to both the scarlet nun and “Memorial’s” evil aunt, and Susan Kellerman is her equal as the nun’s trashy mother and tattered trouper Pagan Fury.

Phillip Irwin scores doubly as the nun’s unloving, unthinking husband and Aunt Opal’s muddled nephew Simon, who used to get spiritual messages from water in the bathroom and is the channel for his mother’s restless spirit. Tony Campisi is good as the snake lady’s husband. His wife is captured incisively by Elizabeth Cava, who also brings originality to Simon’s wheelchair-bound sister, who has spiritual difficulties of her own.

Andy Daley deserves a mention for his tongue-in-cheek credit for the “black walls” against which Noel’s black comedies unfold. Maurice Noel is a name to remember. His images are fresh and an affectionate heart is at the core of his comedy.

At 800 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood; Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; ends April 18. $10; (213) 462-0265.