THEATER REVIEWS ‘THE REAL THING’ AND ‘FRANTIC MAN’ : British and Local : A Ventura theater is staging a Tom Stoppard play about love and one about a stun-gun incident in the county.

Two plays are running concurrently at Ventura’s Plaza Players Theater. One is an award-winning Broadway hit; the other is brand-new with a high degree of local interest.

On Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights, the company is producing Tom Stoppard’s “The Real Thing.” On Saturday afternoons and Sunday nights, the theater is turned over to a workshop production of the one-act play “Frantic Man” by local playwright George Keenen. “Frantic Man” is based on an incident in Ventura last year.

Stoppard’s Tony-winning comedy may be the Plaza Players’ most effective production in quite some time. The cast, mostly newcomers to the company, is consistently able; the pacing is finely tuned by director George J. Sandoval.

That’s the good news. On the downside, the show is definitely not for everyone.

Politically conscious British playwright Stoppard has crafted a sort of romantic comedy dealing with an intellectual British playwright--the leading character--and several actors, two of whom are his first and current wives.

It’s an accessible-enough subject, although plays about the theater are basically self-indulgent exercises. The problem is the very Englishness of Stoppard’s script, structured very much like a Noel Coward drawing-room comedy. Director Sandoval and the cast zap witty repartee across the stage with the pace of a laser show.

The lines are delivered with English accents that are remarkably accurate by local community theater standards, and which may at times be difficult to make out.

Couple that with a number of arcane references, and much of the audience may feel shut out of many of the jokes and much of the story. It helps, for instance, to know that Procol Harum’s ‘60s rock hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale” was adapted from Bach’s “Air on the G String.”

It may be best to forget about trying to follow the convoluted plot, which contrasts several love affairs with “the real thing,” and to concentrate instead on Stoppard’s characters and whatever witty observations can be plucked out of the air.

Gary Best, a Plaza Players veteran, stars as playwright Henry Boot. Tom Maddox plays Max, who’s the leading man in Boot’s play, “House of Cards,” and Boot’s best friend. Boot is married to Charlotte (Debra Massarella), and Henry is married to another actress, Annie (Kathryn Spitz). You practically need a more carefully annotated program than the Plaza Players gives out to understand this. What follows is far too much detail for a newspaper review, but you might clip and bring the next three paragraphs as a guide if you see the show.

“The Real Thing” opens with Max and Charlotte onstage as man and wife in a scene from “House of Cards” (a detail that all but the most observant may miss) and the relationships all change between Acts I and II.

Henry is fretting about an upcoming appearance on the prestigious radio program “Desert Island Discs.” Participants are asked which several records they’d take to a desert island, and Henry is concerned that his own tastes tend more to ‘60s pop than classical as (he thinks) befits a first-rank playwright.

Three more characters pop up: Henry and Charlotte’s daughter, Debbie (Brenda Kenworthy); leftist playwright Brodie (Seth Blackburn); and Billy (Scott Rae), the leading man in a production of the 17th-Century tragedy “ ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore” that co-stars Annie. You remember Annie, she’s Max’s wife. During the first act, at least.

Having read the script in advance, all of the players carry on as though they know what’s going on all the time.

Teal Rowe and Gary Best are credited with the complex stage set, which converts from stage to drawing room to train coach with varying effectiveness. James Angle’s lighting is fine.

Music is very important to “The Real Thing,” and is generally handled well in this production. Some miscues were notable in last Saturday night’s performance as well as a couple of records that may not have been Stoppard’s choice.

“The Frantic Man” is based on the story of Duane Johnson, a Ventura County Medical Center patient who died after being subdued with several jolts from police electric stun guns.

There were two central points of controversy when the event occurred in February, 1990: How many shots were fired, and whether the use of stun guns was appropriate in the first place. Both are examined in Keenen’s dramatization of the incident, with all names changed.

The play was developed over 2 1/2 months by the Plaza Players Theater Lab under the direction of Ted Vaca. Keenen’s script has been sculpted to accommodate the actors, many of them first-timers on the stage.

In the interests of drama, Keenen’s central character is Jim Larkin (Tony Wodwaski), a reporter moonlighting from the sports desk who winds up with the “Tommy Jackson” story.

The audience knows what’s going on from the beginning. Reporter Larkin has a devil of a time catching on, in great part because he’s--to put it kindly--inexperienced at his craft.

At home, Larkin’s life is falling apart, with girlfriend Merlene Kray (Tracey Maron Anthony) about to move out--again. Something about his spending too much time on the job. There’s a subplot about Larkin and one of the police officers being old high school football rivals, but this goes nowhere.

As much a tract as a play, “Frantic Man” does its best to be fair, giving the offending police officer (Richard Goad) an opportunity to justify his actions. Still, the case comes off as black and white, even though the killing of Jackson, who’s African-American, is not presented as having been racially motivated.

The acting varies; most of these players are, after all, novices. Luis Morillo turns in a strong, though brief, performance as Jackson, and Richard Goad is especially believable as a police officer. Tom Egan plays Larkin’s editor (we know he’s an editor: his tie is loosened at the knot), and Jim Evans is effective as a more experienced reporter.

Saturday’s performances was scheduled to be followed by a symposium in which members of the audience could meet members of the team and discuss the play. What happened was that actors stepped forward and accepted congratulations from their friends and families.

‘Twas a pity, in light of the few opportunities for an audience to meet with a director and playwright and toss around ideas and insights. With luck, that situation will change.

* WHERE AND WHEN

“The Real Thing” continues Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights through Nov. 23; “Frantic Man” on Saturday afternoons at 2 and Sundays at 7 p.m. through Nov. 30. Tickets to “The Real Thing” are $6 on Wednesdays, $7.50 on Fridays and $8 on Saturdays; all seats to “Frantic Man” are $5. Performances are at the Plaza Players Theatre in the Old Towne Livery Courtyard, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. For more reservations or information, call 643-9460.