THEATER : ‘Snakes’ Gets Caught in Tangle of Details : The A. L. Parrish labor-negotiations drama offers a mind-numbing litany of information about contract talks and environmental issues.

For anyone who wants or needs an inside look at contract talks between union negotiators and the corporate executives of a small chemical plant, “Snakes” provides it with excruciating exactitude.

In fact, A.L. Parrish’s play, which opened over the weekend at the Orange County Coalition of the Theatre Arts, goes in for the sort of technical detail that could fill a chapter in a college textbook about labor management and the impact of environmental issues.

Virtually the entire first act, for example, consists of a verbatim reading of the union’s lengthy contract proposal in all its legalistic language, followed by the equally endearing drone of the company’s counter-proposal. The negotiators, who are seated on both sides of a large white table at stage center, intone a seemingly endless litany of phrases characterized by such specialized jargon as “the shift premium” and “negative cash flow.”

If your mind hasn’t glazed over by the time Article 12.1 in the union proposal has been read--it concerns overtime pay--or Article 17 about “bereavement leave,” or Article 18 about “court duty” rather than “jury duty”--which is no mere splitting of hairs--you are well on your way to matriculation in Parrish’s university.

If, on the other hand, you expect a play to be more than just a laundry list of demands (even worthy ones), or different from a documentary based on real contract negotiations at a real chemical plant (as “Snakes” reportedly is), or simply more appealing than a laborious college textbook, then Parrish’s effort will be wasted on you.

This is not to say that “Snakes” lacks all artistic merit. By the second act, which takes place six months into a strike, the language of the negotiators has changed considerably, and their dramatic motivations have become both more complicated and more interesting.

Although there is still a lot of techno-speak, the issue of “worker contamination” takes precedence in human terms over the other unsolved matters. Meanwhile, we begin to hear about secret company plans to sell off the plant because of environmental hassles and, perhaps more to the point, about the contemplated sellout of the union local by its cynical national leadership.

One of the play’s many inconsistencies, however, is that for all the attention paid to mind-numbing information, we never learn precisely what products the plant manufactures or where it is situated. The negotiable dollar savings that are mentioned seem impossibly wrong. And something as basic as how many workers the plant employs is not revealed until after the intermission, which is much too late, and then only incidentally.

The shoestring production itself, despite a few inept supporting players, manages to evoke a certain amount of conviction chiefly on the strength of authoritative performances by Brent Hardwick as the union local’s negotiator and Tom Lavechia as the union’s national representative. Although these two cannot rescue “Snakes” from the toxic sin of boring its audience into oblivion, they go a long way toward keeping the audience out of a coma.

The production also derives some benefit from the accurate touches of the costumes, which go uncredited in the program and may simply have been supplied by the players. Lavechia’s tight pin-striped shirt and garishly mismatched tie, for example, delineate the style not only of the character he is playing but also of a whole category of types.

All its deficiencies notwithstanding, “Snakes” deserves credit for avoiding the kind of phony sentiment that filled “Encore,” OCCTA’s previous production. Parrish compels respect at least for trying to deal authentically with a serious subject.

A final note: When “Snakes” closes, the troupe will abandon the 32-seat garage space it established here about six months ago behind the offices of a children’s acting studio. Producer Steve Wilbur says OCCTA expects to move its productions to the Anaheim Cultural Center.

“Snakes” continues Fridays and Saturdays through Jan. 26 at 729 W. 16th St., Costa Mesa. Performances are at 8 p.m. Tickets: $10. (714) 991-8556.

WAY OUT: The Way Off Broadway Playhouse in Santa Ana has announced a five-play season for 1991:

“Women Behind Bars” by Tom Eyen (Feb. 14 to April 13); “An Act of Imagination” by Bernard Slade (May 9 to June 8); a play to be announced (July 11 to Aug. 31); “The Invisible Man” by Eddie Cope (Oct. 3 to Nov. 9); “Times Square Angel” by Charles Busch (Dec. 5 to Jan. 11, 1992).

“We had a very good year in 1990,” artistic director Tony Reverditto said recently. “We basically sold out all our shows. Of course, we’ve only got a 54-seat theater.” Reverditto did not give specific sales figures, however.

He said the troupe also plans to add four “Way Off the Wall” comedy nights this year and two youth plays, with “Juvie” in March and another to be announced for the summer.

The new schedule “means we’ll be doing one less play in our regular season,” Reverditto said, “but we’ll be running each of them longer.”

WAY IN: The Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana reports that ticket sales are “going nicely” for James Goldman’s “The Lion in Winter,” which begins previews Jan. 18.

“At this particular moment, it doesn’t look like we’re hit by the recession, not with this type of play,” ART business manager David Palmer said last week. “Everybody seems to be a little bit familiar with it because of the Katharine Hepburn-Peter O’Toole movie.”

Palmer added that attendance for ART’s staged reading of Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” and other Yuletide stories over the holidays was up 10% over the previous year at the troupe’s 61-seat storefront theater. “We sold more than 1,000 tickets,” he said.

Earlier this season, however, the commedia dell’arte production of Leon Katz’s “Three Cuckolds” did not meet expectations. The troupe had projected sales of about 1,100 tickets but drew only about 700 paying customers, Palmer said.

NOT WAY UP: The Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach reports that its recent Christmas production of “Quilters” grossed $135,534 on sales of 6,326 tickets for 20 performances, or 82% of capacity in the 418-seat Moulton Theatre.

“I feel good about it,” executive director Richard Stein said last week. “But some within the organization, perhaps because of their enthusiasm for the play, felt we would do better.”

NOT WAY DOWN: South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa reports that its annual production of “A Christmas Carol” in December grossed about $286,000 on sales of about 12,900 tickets for 27 performances, or 94% of capacity at the 507-seat SCR Mainstage.