‘Sculptors’ a Bust Even Before It Makes It to Stage : Bob Herrera sets up fireworks his drama never delivers. And the actors flounder in this Teatro Cometa production in Fullerton.

The metaphor is right there on director Rosemary Ramos’ stage at Teatro Cometa. The clay sculpture that Leonora Uribe’s Liz is making in Bob Herrera’s drama “Sculptors” is much too much like the play itself: The basic human form is vaguely in view, but so much work is left to be done.

We would like to see Liz work on her bust while she’s chatting or raging at her husband (Emilio Rivera’s Frank). But even more, we would like to see Herrera finish the play he’s begun. Before it peters out, “Sculptors” is already the prototypical three-act play with a missing third act.

Actually, with the compression of the two existing acts into one, Herrera would have room for an entire second act. Except for a pair of minor intrusions from Frank’s corporate secretary (an effectively feisty Maria Gil De Montes) and his lawyer (a fatally lethargic Ron Rodarte), the play is an extended dialogue between the all-business husband and the all-feeling wife.

Their talk emerges as an often clumsily expositional setup for fireworks that never happen. Frank is the smooth operator, having finessed his way into the top post at a prosperous recycling firm. Now that he’s in charge, he can put his own management notions into practice, starting with breaking the union.

“Sculptors” is one of those plays that immediately telegraphs badness and goodness, as if out of fear that the telling won’t suffice. Thus, Frank announces that he’s getting into Republican fund-raising, something we’re supposed to find repulsive and that Liz can’t fathom (“Chicano Republican?” she asks, almost in disgust).

In fact, Liz--at least as Uribe plays her--is so clearly disgusted with Frank so early on that we wonder why she hadn’t divorced him long ago. Their clashing values--his undisguised mendacity, her wide-open charitable spirit--possess an irreconcilability that goes far beyond a spousal spat.

Because we can’t imagine the common bonds they may have once held (and making Frank a failed artist is a false short-cut that only underlines this problem), we can’t believe that they’re having this conversation. Liz hasn’t known that Frank is just out for the buck? Frank hasn’t known that Liz is driven by morality, not money?

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Of course, there are ways of setting this up so we may enter their world without fundamentally questioning it. That might be done with much rewriting and even more trimming, but what remains is the whole act Herrera has left out: The one in which Liz actually wages war with Frank’s business schemes.

Her last-minute phone call to a lawyer regarding community property is too obtuse by half, and a paltry climax to the storm mounting inside the play.

“Sculptors” looks--and sounds--timid about its own internal rage, as if things would get more out of control than they already are. Uribe and Rivera are better actors than they reveal here; their Sunday night performances in Kambon Obayani’s “L.A. Stories” at the Burbage Theatre in West Los Angeles aren’t world-beating, but they’re focused, impassioned and, well, sculpted .

In Ramos’ hands, they’re floundering, missing the dramatic beats, sending out the impression that they’re making it up as they go along. More crucially, they don’t feel married to each other, which only compounds the play’s built-in problems.

The cometa in this theater’s name refers to a comet, which suggests a company with a desire to astonish, and within a much-needed Orange County Latino perspective. That’s the right destination, but “Sculptors” isn’t the kind of work that will get it there.

A final note: Because of the theater’s bleacher-type seating, a large pillow is strongly advised.

* “Sculptors,” Teatro Cometa, 116 1/2 Wilshire Ave., Fullerton. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends March 27. $7. (714) 526-5156. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Leonora Uribe: Liz

Emilio Rivera: Frank

Maria Gil De Montes: Della

Ron Rodarte: Gus

A Teatro Cometa production of Bob Herrera’s drama. Directed by Rosemary Ramos.