Tasty ‘Slice’ of British Theater Served in L.A.

If you’ve never been to Britain and seen the natives uncork one of their characteristic sex farces, a brittle Joe Orton comedy or a working-stiff drama, a tasty approximation comes in The Yorkshire Pudding Players’ three one-acts, “A Slice of London,” at the igLoo Theater in West Hollywood.

This new company makes a promising debut with a mix of British and American actors under the manic helm of producer-director-actor Sean Francis Howse. The accents are so pitch-perfect it’s not possible to tell which actors are from Britain and which are local.

In fact, in the best of the plays, the street-tough “London Calling” by Tony Marchant, the Cockney is so thick that half the time you can’t understand two of the three characters. But the primitive plot and the visceral acting make words here unimportant. You know exactly where you’re at--in a dank alley with desperate, alienated, unemployed and unemployable youths fleeing the police.

Under Mark Ruffalo’s bristling direction, Rick Peters, Chris Thornton and Howse personify the rabble that is a breath away from becoming Skinheads. The rangy/vulgar Peters is electric.

This company’s effortless British style is most apparent in the crazed boudoir farce “Anyone for Tennis” by Gwyn Clarke, co-directed by Sybil Moore and the peripatetic Howse. Two couples, who regularly cheat on each other every Wednesday afternoon, endure the ultimate embarrassment when they wind up in the same bedroom at the same hour.

The British have a handle on this kind of sexual farce Americans can’t touch. But--surprise--these actors (Heath Weaver, Mark Paskell, Jonathan Gilchrist and Katey Tipton) are American, which says a lot for British director Howse.

The most curious entry is the opener, Joe Orton’s “The Ruffian on the Stair,” dealing with the domestic squalor of a cold, jealous husband (Anthony Russell), his mousy wife (Kathryn Douglas, with ratty-looking hair-curler ringlets), and a quintessential Ortonesque stranger (marvelously played by Howse).

Set designs by David Bleecher, on a matchbox stage, realistically earmark the action.

“A Slice of London,” igLoo Theatre, 6543 Santa Monica Blvd., Tuesdays - Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 26. $8-$10; (213) 665-5226. Running time: 2 hrs., 45 mins.

Rich Characterization in ‘Jersey’ Rings True

He gave dis ta me. Vinnie did. It’s a hammer. A gold hammer. He gave it ta me cause he knocked me up. It may not sound romantic ta you, but it is . . . it is . . .

That’s rebellious teen-ager Angela cooing over her little gold hammer on a chain, and it’s emblematic of the rich characterization in solo performer Susan Van Allen’s densely textured “Jersey Girls” at Theater/Theatre.

The entitled “girls” number five cross-generational characters from the Italian-American working-class world of Asbury Park, interlocked by blood, neighborhood and ripe Garden State accents.

Much like Chazz Palminteri in “A Bronx Tale” a few years ago, Van Allen is a chameleon who has created a universe from basic material: a widowed mother making meatballs, her unhappy career daughter slugging down drinks in a bar, a floozy waitress in a diner with a dime-store future and her forlorn 10-year-old daughter.

Before you know it, Van Allen, changing character with mercurial ease by merely slipping on a pair of glasses or rearranging her hair, has brought breath, continuity and a sense of place to a complex world.

The ending takes a downward curve, veering the humor into a poignancy that’s not altogether earned. But this San Francisco-based monologuist, in collaboration with director David Ford, makes Joisey seem like home.

“Jersey Girls,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Feb. 23. $10; (213) 464-8938. Running time: 1 hr., 30 min.

Ratner Returns With Sharp ‘Personality’

A rewarding theater experience is to bound from “Jersey Girls” to another incisive one-woman show, Ellen Ratner’s “Personality” at the Odyssey Theatre.

Ratner is still dressed in those white shoes, shorts and sweater with which she broke in “Personality” at the Odyssey in 1985, where the show later ran for three years. She and co-creator and director Gina Wendkos have returned with not a new show but a buffed and honed production that ranks among the very best of solos.

Ratner’s plain, decent, insecure, badgered New Yorker daughter and her telephone-addicted, yakking, piranha mother with the adenoidal voice is a classic in the pantheon of mother-daughter battlegrounds. But what’s remarkable about Ratner’s skills is that they appear almost minimalist.

The actress sits essentially motionless on a dark stage under a shaft of bright light, legs crossed, chain-smoking in a tableau that, superficially, almost suggests a nightclub act. Her vocal dexterity and physical transformations with a mere flip of the wrist or shake of the head capture you with the power of the Muse.

Both Ratner’s Heather and Susan Van Allen’s “Jersey” girls are variations of the same brittle woman--looking for prospects, looking for role models, fearful, lonely. Both are pristine in their craft yet hugely different: Ratner is metallic and flinty while Van Allen is Chaplinesque and huggable.

“Personality,” Odyssey, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Fridays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 7. $17; (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hr., 15 min.

One-Acts Range From Enchanting to Absurd

One of two isn’t bad. Theatre 40 has unfurled its third annual one-act festival, and Series A features the premieres of two Canadian plays developed at Calgary’s downtown Lunchtime Theatre, which specializes in one-act plays.

In Paddy Campbell’s “The Parallax Gardens,” an abandoned wife (the sympathetic June Claman) finds the ideal companion--a scarecrow--to the consternation of her uptight family (sharply acted by the fussy Rhonda Lord and the humorously flustered David Hunt Stafford).

The play is a variation on the rabbit play “Harvey,” except that you can see this make-believe friend, and that’s “Parallax’s” strength. The straw creature and its Oz-like demeanor is mutely and wonderfully performed by Patrick Posada. The last scene, a dance between the lady and her stuffed man, is enchantingly staged by director Anita Khanzadian-Jones.

“Life History of the African Elephant,” by Clem Martini, is set in the elephant house at a zoo. It’s an unlikely love story between an accident-prone woman who won’t stop talking (Laura Drake) and a meek elephant-keeper (very well played by Jerry Beal). But the only captivating element, which is the final word on director Stewart J. Zully’s ability to make sense of this play, is the head and trunk of the elephant, which are dandy special effects. This play is absurd without being absurdist.

Series A, “Life History of the Elephant” and “The Parallax Garden,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills, Sundays - Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 5. $10; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hrs.