‘Lib’ Looks Back at ‘70s Women’s Movement

The best way to understand what’s happening today is to glance back at yesterday. That’s exactly what Kim Carney does in her charming, off-beat comedy “Lib,” at Friends & Artists Theatre.

The title is double-edged. It’s the name of the leading character, a freshman at Wayne State University in Detroit in 1973. It also obliquely refers to the women’s movement, which was just getting its feet wet as Libby arrives in her new dormitory room with her lifelong friend Carol.

Libby (Kristina Starman) and Carol (Mary-Beth Manning) are starting their own movement into life outside their small hometown, and they have decidedly different ways of doing it.

Outwardly priggish, snobby Carol does it by dating almost the entire football team, with expected results. Libby does it by moving away from Carol’s uptight anxiety into the psychedelic, free-wheeling world of Cheyenne (Katy Boyer) in the next room.

The result is funny, touching, and sometimes a little sad. The next generation can find here some of the reasons its liberated mothers joined the march, and why. Being male, director Steven Ingrassia might be getting more mileage out of the subject, seeing much of its humor from an alien’s point of view, but he has a good springboard to start with in Carney’s wise and witty script.

The whole production is as integrated as the sharp performances. Robert W. Zentis’ set and lighting place the action just right in locale and period, and Phil Irwin’s costumes are icing on this slice of memory.

“Lib,” Friends & Artists Theatre, 1761 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 21. $15; (213) 664-0680. Running time: 2 hours.

Gags Stay Crisp in Transplanted Comedy

Ray Cooney’s British farce “Run for Your Wife” ran in the West End for nine years. This production at the Odyssey, directed by Ian Ogilvy, who appeared in the London production, knows every turn in Cooney’s intricate labyrinth, and careens merrily until the final curtain.

Well, almost. Ogilvy moved the action from London suburbs to the Bronx and Yonkers to “make it more accessible to American audiences,” according to a program note. But American beer is not Watney’s Red Barrel.

Still, Ogilvy manages to keep most of the gags crisp and his action delightfully hectic on Nina Gabriel’s spic-and-span double apartment set. He also plays the lead role, cab driver John Smith, whose British accent--explained in an added line--is totally accessible to an American audience.

Michael E. Knight’s frenetic energy as John’s upstairs friend Stanley makes a perfect balance for Ogilvy’s understated panic, and Kathryn Holcomb and Cindy Carlson are properly gorgeous as the two wives John is running for, to and from with breathless speed. Joe Palese and R.J. Miller are not as funny as detectives as their British versions are, but they get their own laughs easily. As the stereotypical gay man who lives upstairs from John’s other wife, Ted Deasy helps stir Cooney’s stew until it bubbles.

“Run for Your Wife,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Wednesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 7 & 9:30 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 15. $15-$21.50; (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Lex Theatre’s ‘Bingo’ Is Not a Winner

There are reasons why Edward Bond’s 20-year-old “Bingo” is not produced more often. It speaks to universal matters--poverty, women’s rights and greed--but does so at odd angles and around sharp turns that would require imagination and subtle control that are not evident in this production at the Lex Theatre.

Shakespeare is the central figure, played by Allen Williams like a bored, out-of-work TV writer, soliloquizing and pondering his speeches without shape or color. There is a very theatrical period background for all this, illustrating all the author’s points, but general overplaying and Dennis Redfield’s formless direction don’t allow the images to gel.

Madeleine Swift as the Bard’s shrewish daughter, who could have set feminism back for centuries, stays on one note too long, and Maria O’Brien’s dirty, poverty-stricken, homeless slut looks as though Edith Head applied the dirt. The rest of the company doesn’t do much better, although two grand performances stand out and give a hint that the play could work: Jeffrey VanderByl’s intense young visionary and Mark Haining’s richly comic Ben Jonson, to whom the playwright should have given more time.

“Bingo,” Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 8. $10; (213) 468-6244. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Too Broad a View of ‘Woman’s Body’

Marita Simpson’s “A Woman’s Body,” based on Sarah Aldridge’s novel “Cytherea’s Breath,” is just what an adaptation from a novel should not be. It tries to take too broad a view, in little snips of scenes, and loses what strength the central story might have in a more focused form.

Simpson’s story of a woman doctor in 1908, who finds security and professional fulfillment through a female patron she learns to love, and then almost loses it all through prejudice, says nothing new, but could make strong statements about independence and understanding.

Its power is diluted not only by Simpson’s script in this Celebration Theatre production, but by her decision to direct it herself. Though she proved her directing skills in the earlier “Sweet Sufferings” at the same theater, she’s too close to her own writing here, too close to get much more than hesitant performances.

“A Woman’s Body,” Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $15; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

‘Home of the Brave’ Short on Empathy

In a program note, writer-director Mary Louisa Cappelli says many Americans “have forgotten the struggles and histories of their immigrant forefathers.” Wrong. Most Americans recall stories of their forebears’ arrival and their efforts to become a part of their new homeland.

Her statement is at the core of her play, “Home of the Brave,” at the Powerhouse, about Mexican illegals making the dangerous journey across the border to find better lives. It is not very well written or directed, and brings no new values to an old story.

The stories of four male travelers are told in flashbacks, in which the Anglos they encounter are giggling gargoyles in Debra Bird’s grotesque masks, and in which all the women in their lives are played by themselves, which elicits only giggles from the audience.

Cappelli does a disservice to those she hopes to help, especially when her heroes are far from that: one an alcoholic, another interested only in girls and cars, one seeking nothing but stardom.

“Home of the Brave,” Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 22. $15; (310) 392-6529. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.