Two Souls in Search of Life’s Meaning

Pauline Lepor’s “A No-Life Crisis,” at Hollywood’s Lost Studio, could be subtitled “Frankie & Johnny Meet Pizza Man.” But the play is better than its unfortunate title, and its similarity to other plays dissolves as soon as its protagonists begin to peel away the facades that have kept them from their destinies.

During one long night, two lonely, lost souls collide, embrace and walk hand-in-hand into the dawn, but not before jumping some personal hurdles they could never have handled alone.

Waitress Jasmine was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but you’d never know it from her snake-pit Manhattan apartment. She’s fighting for independence from her family. David is a Columbia grad, with a $50,000 student debt, but you’d never know it from his pizza deliveryman attitude. He’s fighting for motivation.

What do they have in common? Their search for a reason for existence. That search is their bond, along with the bowl of marijuana they share (“My one extravagance,” she says), the physical intimacy they experience and the subtle gratification of their opposing emotional and intellectual needs.

The subtext also sets the play apart. It makes sharp comment about the disaster of modern economics and social disparity, but that doesn’t intrude too heavily on the drama--and wit--of Jasmine and David’s affirmation that people do go on, in spite of political decay.

Lepor gives an energetic, resonant performance as Jasmine, alternately comic and touching, and her real-life husband, Eli Veitzer, though his acting spectrum is limited, seems just right as the boyishly naive, anxiety-ridden David.

The production, tightly and interestingly directed by Valerie Mayhew, is co-produced by City of Angels Hospice, which receives profits from the production.

“A No-Life Crisis,” Lost Studio, 130 S. La Brea Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 29. $8-$9; (213) 480-3232. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

A Trilogy of Howard One-Acts

Another unfortunate title masks a clever idea in the three one-acts that make up Gregory Allen Howard’s “Tinseltown Trilogy,” at the Tamarind Theatre.

“The Pitch” is about a black man finding that racism is one of the tools used to make sales in a boiler-room operation. “Reel Blood” has a black punk confronting Hollywood wealth and using a gun to get his share. “The Truth” examines a barber whose tobacco habit separates him from church.

The clever idea finds the failed hustler from the boiler room and the punk killer as customers in the barber shop. Fascinating. If only the playwright had made it work. Howard has a facility for dialogue, but little of it is about character, and much of it is repetitious--and Ted Lange’s lethargic direction doesn’t help.

What does help immensely are some of the performances. J.D. Hall is exceptional as Levi Smith, the barber--colorful, intriguing and rich in tone. Alpheus Merchant is also fine as the owner of the shop. Rugg Williams is a firecracker as the punk, but the one note Howard gives him sounds like a “Yo! MTV Raps” outtake.

“Tinseltown Trilogy,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Dec. 29. $15-$20; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

‘Threesome & Some’ an Explosive Quartet

According to Jason Lesner’s “Threesome & Some,” at Third Stage Theatre in Burbank, some runaways don’t have it all that bad.

Heiden (playwright Lesner), Chase (Justin Mitchell) and Nero (Zoe Benston) live in a typical Hollywood one-bedroom apartment, with a television yet, and don’t seem unduly concerned about finances. Of course, their income is not legal. Heiden and Chase pick pockets, and Nero turns a trick pretty regularly.

What really bothers them are the loosening and tightening bonds of the substitute family they’ve formed. It almost bursts when Nero brings home a girl named Juve (Jane Longenecker) for the night, and then informs Heiden that she’s pregnant with, probably, his baby.

Their backgrounds of familial trauma are the coin of today’s writers, but even that is sublimated in Lesner’s provocative script about relationships between youngsters finding out who they are. Except for a sappy happy ending, in which Heiden miraculously makes a split-second character change, and Chase’s equally unbelievable personality shift when he loses his virginity, Lesner knows his territory.

The playwright is aided by four volatile, well-honed performances, especially Mitchell’s panicky Chase and Longenecker’s vibrant Juve. Jack Rowe, of the late, lamented Company Theatre, directs with a sure grasp of the explosive personalities in the script.

“Threesome & Some,” Third Stage Theatre, 2811 Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Sat. $10; (818) 909-9040. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

A Dogged Production of ‘Stay Carl Stay’

If all else fails, have an affair with your dog. That’s the joke in Peter Tolan’s “Stay Carl Stay.” And it’s a very funny joke indeed.

In this spritely production at Two Roads Theater in Studio City, Caroline (Dana Stevens) and Brian (Todd Harrington) are the bland, mismatched couple that break up over Caroline’s growing attention to her dog, Carl. Mark York’s direction is also appropriately lively but one joke is still one joke.

The performances of Lorette Moreno as Caroline’s just-turned-lesbian friend Mary Sue (“I hope they let me keep my sense of humor”), David Arnott as Carl the dog, and Michael T. Vieyra as Mary Sue’s gay dog, Bingo, provide the medium-sized laughs, but the big laughs come whenever Lisa Malone is on stage as Caroline’s whacked-out therapist. She’s a gem.

“Stay Carl Stay,” Two Roads Theatre, 4346 Tujunga Blvd., Studio City. Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Ends Sat. $10; (818) 766-9381. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Chapel Court Duo Lost in Wilderness

There is little to recommend in “A Woman Obsessed” and “Packed House,” two one-acts at Hollywood’s Chapel Court Theatre.

Alan and Karen Eyerly’s “Woman” has a husband following his wife as she breaks into a home in the middle of the night. Their own home has been scrubbed to perfection, so she is driven to invade others with her Lysol and rubber gloves. It stretches the viewer’s patience to the breaking point.

Kirstin Dahl’s “Packed House” is on surer footing as far as subject matter goes, but the writing is far from fulfilling its promise. Room-mates Belinda (Lori Ann Lesmeister) and Didi (Karen Eyerly) are moving out, until Didi’s boyfriend, Bates (Dan Streeter), walks in with his anti-Semitism and preppy snobbery. A potentially explosive situation is stifled in the playwright’s simplistic execution and lack of definition.

Karen Eyerly’s staging of the first play, and Clint Duvall’s staging of the second, don’t much help the actors lost in the wasteland.

“Packed House” & “A Woman Obsessed,” Chapel Court Theatre, Hollywood Methodist Church, Franklin & Highland Aves. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Indefinitely. $7.50; (213) 874-4527. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.