Smorgasbord Serving of Beckett Alternates With Tale of Barstool Lies

There’s a new odd couple in town: Beckett and Finkelthal.

Samuel Beckett needs little introduction. Ophir Finkelthal is the author of “Suspension in Moments,” a seriocomic tale of modern relationships and alienation, opening Monday at Stages Trilingual Theatre in Hollywood. “Two characters meet at a decaying bar,” said the playwright, 23. “They start a relationship, telling stories that may or may not be true. Whenever there’s an honest communication, they take a step back; they’re not ready for total honesty.”

Playing on alternate nights at the theater is Ryan Cutrona’s one-man “Nohow On,” a 75-minute dramatic compilation of Beckett’s lesser-known novels, short stories, short prose texts and poems.

“Like so many people, I read Beckett in college--although it mostly went by and over my head,” confessed the actor, 42. “Then in my early 20s, I was cast in a production of ‘End Game,’ playing Ham. I also saw a television production of Jack MacGowran doing ‘Beginning to End’ and was really impressed, but knew I didn’t have the stature to pull it off.” Years later, “older and wiser, and more familiar with the vagaries of loss,” Cutrona began his investigation of Beckett’s oeuvre.

“There’s no way, no manner in which to continue,” he explained of the title “Nohow On.” “And yet one does, regardless. It attests to the perseverance and determination of mankind. Many consider Beckett the poet of despair; in fact, he’s very compassionate--especially in his earlier work, which isn’t so well-known. They’re very funny. The characters have a great sense of humor about themselves, the human condition, their powerlessness in the world--laughing in the face of those daunting odds.”

The actor also hopes to dispel the perception of Beckett as an elitist.

“He was very involved in the world,” said Cutrona, a self-described “regular guy from a family of seven kids” who teaches acting locally. “And he wrote about all our lives: common, simple, everyday people. He wasn’t intellectually removed. That reputation grows out of scholarship about Beckett--and while they’re often fascinating to read, you can get bogged down by people trying to make sense of it. Beckett himself always made fun of the scholarship.”

“Nohow On” follows a string of earlier Beckett works by Cutrona: “All Strange Away” and “Fizzles” were performed at New York’s La Mama; “Krapp’s Last Tape” and “A Piece of Monologue” at the University of North Carolina, where he taught drama. Yet the actor also favors diversity and believes that a diet of only Beckett “would be far too limiting.” He’s heard frequently on Joe Frank’s “Work in Progress” series on KCRW, appears in the current feature film “Hot Shots,” and will be seen in the films “The Last Boy Scout” and “Cuffs.”

In the ‘70s, Cutrona hooked up with Polish Laboratory Theater founder Jerzy Grotowski, training and performing with the experimental theater ensemble in the United States, Poland and Italy.

“I’ve done a lot of ensemble work,” said the actor, who resettled in Los Angeles last year after 10 years in New York. “But I’m also interested in facing material and audiences alone--and playing multiple characters. Beckett wrote so much for the solo voice.” The sources that he has included in “Nohow On” span the ‘30s to the ‘80s: “Company,” “Molloy,” “Watt,” “Poems in French,” “Malone Dies,” “Fizzles,” “The Unnameable,” “How It Is” and “Worst Word Ho.”

“I picked particular aspects that people might not be familiar with,” said Cutrona, who was given permission by Beckett’s American publisher (and before his death, by Beckett himself) to perform this material. “I hope to attract a wider audience to Beckett’s work, show the accessible and identifiable aspects: love poems, children’s stories, humor. I want it to be entertaining and enjoyable, not a dirge. There are those aspects in Beckett’s work, but we wanted to bring out the other ones.”

“Nohow On” plays at 8 p.m. Thursdays , Fridays and Saturdays at Stages Trilingual Theatre, 1540 N. McCadden Place in Hollywood, through Sept. 14. Admission: $12 to $15. “Suspension in Moments” plays Mondays at 8 p.m. through Sept. 9. Admission: $10. Reservations for both shows: (213) 465-1010.