STAGE REVIEW : Travails of Traveling Fast-Buck Schemers

There is a line in “The Rug Merchants of Chaos” that says it all--about the desperate characters in this latest Ronald Ribman play and about the human condition as a whole: “Everything in our lives is hanging so delicately between tragedy and farce.” So is Ribman’s new play.

The statement is, of course, particularly true of the two American couples fleeing Cape Town who are the focus of this tragifarce that opened Sunday at the Pasadena Playhouse’s Balcony Theatre. They are among the unsung legions of the world’s business adventurers, eternal optimists who gamble with one sure-fire deal after another and usually lose.

In this case we are looking at Sheila and Victor Finkelberg and their partners Ann and Max Mottram, world travelers in spite of themselves. Vic and Max are the dreamers who concoct the cockamamie schemes for making a fast bundle; Sheila and Ann go along.

This modus vivendi has resulted in the luckless foursome losing a bundle quicker than they make it, which has taken them on golden goose chases to Panama City, Montevideo and most recently Cape Town. There, in desperation, they torched their rug business for the insurance money. Except that they bungled the job and are on the lam on a crummy Japanese tub (another terrific set by Deborah Raymond and Dorian Vernacchio, well lit by Kevin Mahan) en route to Tasmania.

Once on board, the complications multiply. Victor and Max are always putting a good face on things and Ann will follow Max anywhere. But Sheila, a Bennington graduate who can’t forget how far she has fallen, is forever dousing expectations with torrents of pessimism. Tasmania is not her idea of bliss, not that she expects they’ll ever get there anyway.

The events combined with the truly dreadful conditions aboard this filthy ship, a “rotting corroded hulk” driven by a blustery, blackmailing captain who’s onto the reasons why these fugitives have come aboard (his is the only vessel leaving port quick enough), obtain some juicy situational comedy.

Ribman knows how to turn out strong characters and punchy one-liners. “Rug Merchants” can be very funny at times, but its bark--mainly Sheila’s--is ultimately greater than its bite.

Given the avowed premise (the dirty-trick randomness of life) and this writer’s talent for more savage satire (such as his play “Buck,” about shady cable TV types, seen at the Heliotrope in 1989), one hoped for something deeper and more dangerous. But “Rug Merchants” is determined froth. Director David Schramm keeps the action churning and most of his actors are a match for the material.

Barbara Whinnery’s sexy Ann is a domesticated bubblehead who would follow husband Max anywhere. As that husband, James Morrison is a sweet, handsome lug, not without a bad conscience (over an incident in his past) or genuine aspirations; he just can’t seem to make any of them work out.

Neither can Matt Landers’ Victor, a fundamentally good Joe who, years ago, threw in his lot with Max and is just as caught up in the loyalties, pipe dreams and failures. But the funniest lines belong to doubting Sheila, the nonstop naysayer, panicked that she can’t “even remember the rhyme scheme for the Petrarchan sonnet” and played by Fran Drescher with the urgency of a lovesick loon and a voice that’ll drill holes in your brain.

The interaction among the four works like a well-oiled machine. But the injection in all this of the marginal Captain Nakamochi is a puzzling choice. By the nature of the situation, he’s not only a lecherous, two-dimensional cartoon, but a highly questionable and nasty stereotype. Actor Ernest Harada struggles to make the man connect with everyone else’s reality without entirely succeeding. Compared to the others, the character is too much of a line drawing.

Was it really necessary to make the boat Japanese and thus leave the door open to so many unpleasant implications that have so little to do with the meat of the play? This writer says no.

The gang of four finally resolves its mounting problems with a literal leap of faith. It’s a dubious note of hope at the end, but hope is hope and Ribman is correct to find renewal in desperation. All life is risk. So is all playwriting. As entertaining as “Rug Merchants” is at its best, it can use an infusion of seriousness and some rethinking.

* “The Rug Merchants of Chaos,” Pasadena Playhouse, Balcony Theatre, 39 S. El Molino Ave. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends May 12. (818) 356-PLAY. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

‘The Rug Merchants of Chaos’

Fran Drescher: Sheila Finkelberg

Matt Landers: Victor Finkelberg

Barbara Whinnery: Ann Mottram

James Morrison: Max Mottram

Ernest Harada: Captain Nakamochi

A presentation of Susan Dietz in association with the Pasadena Playhouse. Director David Schramm. Playwright Ronald Ribman. Sets Deborah Raymond and Dorian Vernacchio. Lights Kevin Mahan. Costumes Florence Kemper. Sound Jack Allaway. Production stage manager Jim Ring.