THEATER REVIEW : ‘When the Bough Breaks’ Tackles Provocative Premise : The play rises above movie-of-the-week status in its challenging and intelligent discourse. It falters in the superficial nature of some characters.

It would be easy to accuse Robert Clyman’s “When the Bough Breaks” at the Colony Studio Theatre of being a disease-of-the-month play wrapped in a movie-of-the-week. The characterization applies in spots, but as a whole Clyman’s writing is more skilled than most of what surfaces in movies-of-the-week, and the “disease” in question is not a disease at all but a moral quandary.

Doug (Robert O’Reilly) and Susan (Melody Ryane) are expecting their first child and it turns out, in the very first scene, that the baby is going to be born prematurely--at a mere 25 weeks of gestation, which could spell real trouble.

This six-month preemie--a boy--might be saddled with disabilities. The word might is key. Do these busy parents, who have waited until the biological clock has almost run out, want to take a chance on this kid or do they want to let it die now?

That’s the issue, except that after deciding on a risky abortion they discover they haven’t the luxury of a choice. Susan is in the hospital and she delivers before things are resolved. The baby, who has a 50-50 chance of dying, survives, and these parents are caught in a bind.

Despite their express desire to let the child die, the hospital cannot disconnect the infant, once born, from life-enhancing tubes. At which point Doug flies into irrational rages and tangles with a mild-mannered big bear of a doctor (a wry Greg Rusin in a huggable performance) who turns out to be a more skillful sparring partner than Doug might have suspected.

Where Clyman’s play rises above movie-of-the-week status is in his ability to create challenging and intelligent discourse. Where he falters is in the superficial nature of some of the peripheral characters he drags in (An Dragavon’s bitchy nurse; Bonita Friedericy’s breezily shallow obstetrician) and in the questionable set of parents he has drawn.

One can accept that Doug is a naturally bellicose and arrogant man (the superimposition of his role as a Type A international jouster who saves corporations from collapse does nothing to enhance his appeal). And one can see Susan as the more perceptive of the two, her parental fears more humanly anchored than Doug’s and her concerns easier to understand. It makes for heightened conflict.

But it is virtually impossible to believe that these two would flatly refuse to see their son, particularly since so much has been made of their excitement at the idea of his birth, and the presumption that they are reasonably smart people.

Whatever happened to the idea that infants, especially preemies (and Clyman, the program tells us, is the father of preemie twins), can benefit from loving contact even in the confines of an incubator?

If Clyman is to stick to his script, he needs to either jettison that stance or make it more persuasive.

It’s true that angry characters are traditionally more vivid. Doug’s belligerence results in a more interesting ending. And it’s true that Susan’s own rather obdurate resistance is circumvented with finesse in a scene with a young and very open Catholic nurse (a lively, glowing performance by Carissa Channing) whose direct approach to faith and hope touches a nerve. But the need for a more believable middle-of-the-play remains.

Also the need for a less manipulative beginning, one that doesn’t broadcast what one can expect quite as blatantly as this one.

D. Silvio Volonte has designed a dank Catholic hospital, rather brightly lit by Jamie McAllister, and director Michael Haney keeps things moving briskly. Whatever adeptness is lacking lies in the script, which taunts at cross purposes as often as it tantalizes at correct ones. Reworking the basic theme could be rewarding. And yes, it might work even better as a screenplay.

* “When the Bough Breaks,” Colony Studio Theatre, 1944 Riverside Drive, Silver Lake. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 4. $18-$20; (213) 665-3011. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.