Scrap’s ‘La Reponse Impervue’ an Uneven but Interesting Mix

A company calling itself Scrap Theatre has launched a tasty idea: a group of performance pieces, “La Reponse Impervue (The Unexpected Answer),” based on Magritte’s painting of the same name, staged cabaret-style in cafes around Hollywood.

The debut in the lounge at the Mondrian Hotel signals promise for a group that disdains conventional theaters and invites company members to perform and shape their own material.

The resulting 2-to-12-minute vignettes about quirky human nature are radically uneven, but under the patchwork structure the production is adventurous and professional.

Once producers Michael DellaFemina (who excels in the role of a raggedy can-picker), Matti Leshem and Charles Bailey-Gates learn from their mistakes, Scrap Theatre will defy its name. What’s needed is an overall director with creative control. Opening night ran two hours without a break. Some of the material is expendable and overwrought.

But the performance gems are several, among them Tim Omundson’s erotic fantasy in “All Men Are Whores” (written by David Mamet), Bailey-Gates and the wordless Angela O’Neill as a tortured couple in “Look Both Ways” (written by Fax Bahr), comic Dylan Brody’s refreshing spin on “War on Drugs,” Patrick Thornton’s scalding Irish rebel in “Trinity” (from Leon Uris), and Laura Spain and Gregg Ostrin’s warring marrieds in “Assassinations” (written by Ostrin and sharply helmed by Leshem).

The production starts dynamically but dribbles to a close. When this company gets tough with itself, this show should fly.

Future venues: the Highland Ground, 742 N. Highland Blvd., Thursday, 9 p.m.; the Metropolis, 650 N. La Cienega Blvd., 9 p.m., June 21; the Mondrian Hotel, July 2, 9 p.m. $3-$10 ; (213) 876-6043.

A Workmanlike ‘Romeo and Juliet’

The Santa Susana Repertory Company plops the houses of Montague and Capulet down in Pueblo de Verona in Spanish California. “Romeo and Juliet” works well around a mission, and even better under a big circus tent, which is the company’s Simi Valley home for the summer.

Early California has possibility as Shakespeare turf. A few years back the Globe Playhouse set “Comedy of Errors” in ‘49er Gold Rush country. But Spanish California, rather washed out in the bland adobe set design, is strictly cosmetic here and quickly forgotten. Director Lane Davies’ production for the SSRC is otherwise workmanlike and occasionally flavorful.

The acting is alternately stiff and energetic. Paul Johansson’s Romeo has appealing vitality and he’s physically robust. But only two actors are Shakespearean in their instincts: Barry Kramer as hothead Tybalt and Jeff Allin as mercurial Mercutio. When they are killed off, the blood of the show goes with them.

What catches your breath are the dashing saber fights--suspenseful stuff, masterfully staged by fight choreographer Michael Rossoddo.

While it’s well-known that Juliet was only 14 years old, seldom do you find a Juliet, such as the gleaming Alisha Das, who acts 14. This is both a curse and a virtue; her voice and emotions are alternately tinny and strident, but there’s something Goldilocked about her, too--or is it just her looks? Here’s a Juliet to argue over.

At 2929 Tapo Canyon Road, Simi Valley, Fridays and Saturdays, 8:30 p.m., Sundays, 8 p.m., through June 24, with additional performances July 15 and July 20. $15 ; (805) 371-1715.

‘So Far, So Good’--So Far Not Quite That Good

For the adventurous theatergoer, “So Far, So Good,” a one-man performance piece at the Zephyr Theatre, is a test of will. Will you make it through the evening? Will you endure a self-described “walking, talking hazardous waste spill” of a character? Will his despair touch you? Will you care?

Actor and debuting playwright Kenneth Robert Shippy and director Allen Garfield have taken a huge risk. They win on theatrical points. Shippy’s tour de force performance and his remarkable shopping cart, with its commode, fire truck and dog frozen stiff as a board, have a crazed kind of appeal. But the creators lose on dramatic grounds. This work is maddening and indulgent.

Its curious redemption is the open-mouthed fascination of watching a production as suicidal as its homeless protagonist, who shuffles around strapped to a ticking time bomb.

An early line portends trouble: “I am the self you have abandoned. I am the self that remains.” This is the signal to duck.

Shippy’s acting and writing can be vivid and riotous. He wears a light bulb on his head, and some of his images are nightmarishly surrealistic. But the real drama, a psychological story of child abuse, arrives too late and can’t sustain the hour and 40-minute length.

Here’s an experiment, developed in Garfield’s Actors Shelter theater lab, that cries out for momentum and focus. Less in this case is more.

At 7458 Melrose Ave., Fridays, 10:30 p.m., indefinitely. $12.50; (213) 281-3399.

Theatre 40 Takes a Fall in ‘Gown for His Mistress’

Theatre 40, which is experienced at staging period farce, slips up with Georges Feydeau’s first full-length comedy, “A Gown for His Mistress.”

The attractive cast captures the frantic and intricate dissembling so vital to Feydeau, but director Harvey Medlinsky’s pacing seems furious for its own sake. Most of the actors are wound up so tightly they tend to spin around the handsomely appointed stage like marionettes instead of people.

There’s also a perceptible lack of Parisian style. The characters too often suggest Americans in belle epoque costumes. The happy exceptions are Barbara Keegan, Dan Peters and Marie Lillo.

The central cad, an unfaithful doctor played by Richard Hoyt-Miller, lacks requisite charm and his habitual shouting is annoying. You’re not supposed to dislike these people. Another actor, David Himes, is too hammy and broad.

Generally, the male actors are heavy-handed and the women too indistinguishable from each other.

At 241 Moreno Drive, (in Beverly Hills High School), Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m., though July 8. $12 - $15; (213) 466-1767.

‘The Informer’ Suffers From Too Much Talkiness

An important subject, the FBI’s illegal surveillance of protest groups, is botched in the Faustian political drama, “The Informer,” at the Zephyr Theatre.

Director/playwright Anton Holden’s heart is certainly sound, but his dramatic instincts are not. Despite provocative dialogue, including the juxtaposition of Spanish and English in this tale of an American student who stings for the FBI, the production suffers from a didactic and stilted tone.

As the rootless sell-out who infiltrates Students in Solidarity with Nicaragua and El Salvador, Alan Berman is a credible and anguished informer. Victor Rivers’ paramilitary zealot and Frank Mangano’s metallic-cold FBI agent are strong support.

But the production is too talky. Its physical design is much too skimpy; lighting designer (David Carlton) must carry too much of the show. And the steely Liana Odalys seems uneasy and self-conscious as the chief Salvadoran freedom fighter, having a romance with the informer.

At 7458 Melrose Ave., Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m., through July 15. $12-$15; (213) 466-1767.