Caught in the Excess of ‘Death!’

They’re ba-aack! Slithering killer-slime reptiles that terrorize tiny Midwestern towns. Gosh-and-golly guys and gals who only want to get ahead in life. Weirdo scientists from the Big City who help the townsfolk track down the nasty 120-foot beastie in their midst.

Yes, campers, it’s B-monster movie day onstage, thanks to the energetic kitschorama that is “The Coils of Death!” at the Attic Theatre.

Ex-Groundling John Goodwin’s enthusiastic genre send-up, directed with a nudge and a wink by Jeff Clinkenbeard, is set in fictional Ready Rock, Mo., a soda-shop kind of town populated by 1950s film archetypes. The play alone wouldn’t be much, but the production is so chock-full of special effects that you have to admire the excess.

When the red light of doom flashes, viewers whip out their (theater-provided) Magnascope devices to peer at a miniature model on which the car chase scenes take place. And there are snake-monsters large and small, thanks to puppeteer Randy Bristow. As the little nipper two seats over from this reviewer squealed when one of the errant vipers put in an appearance, “That was gross. Ooo, that was sick.”

Goodwin plays the lovable sheriff and the eccentric scientist, surrounded by an ensemble that features a number of wacky turns. Especially sharp are Joel J. Edwards as the hunky car mechanic hero, Jane Clark in a dual role as the waitress and the scientist’s daughter and Coleman Moss as the local geezer.

*”The Coils of Death!,” Attic Theatre, 6562 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays 2 & 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends July 11. $15-$20. (213) 469-3786. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

‘Ray-Ka-Pay’ Full of Cool Suspense

Take two parts Harold Pinter, one part Tom Stoppard and a dash of David Hare and you’ve got “Ray-Ka-Pay” at the Cast. Although Anthony Embeck’s keyhole peek at the private lives of two British couples is a smart new work, it’s got its feet so firmly planted in the lefty literary camp of the Queen Mother’s stomping grounds that it already feels a bit dated.

The title refers to a covert operation that William Grace (playwright Embeck, who’s as competent an actor as he is a writer), a member of the CIA-like MI6, once had a hand in South Africa. Off active service when the action opens, William is nonetheless still wracked with liberal guilt over the whole affair. Meanwhile, his wife (the capable Jacqueline Stehr) has been bedding her computer sales customers, and William enlists the help of an MI6 underling to help him get the goods on her.

The tension is Pinter-esque. The style is wordier than Pinter, but not as verbose as Stoppard. And the ideology is left of Stoppard and right of Hare. It is, in other words, a well-heeled Labor Party suspense drama, complete with bedroom Angst and pangs of properly schooled conscience.

“Ray-Ka-Pay” is played with archetypal, articulate British cool, skillfully directed by Ronald J. Cream. Embeck and Stehr work off each other like the pros they clearly are. Sean Francis Howse and Mary Fabricant are almost as convincing, if a bit out of sync, but Richard Osborn is leaden as the token ugly Yank.

Still, it’s asking a bit much here to chalk up all of William’s passive-aggressive nuttiness to the pangs he feels over one particularly violent death. After all, the guy made a career of such doings. Then, too, there’s a melodramatic ending that undercuts Embeck’s two acts’ worth of calibrated interior drama. C’mon, chap, really.

*”Ray-Ka-Pay,” Cast-at-the-Circle, 800 N. El Centro Ave., Hollywood, Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Ends July 9. $15. (213) 462-0265. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Nice Setting, Dull Lovers in ‘Verona’

“Two Gentlemen of Verona” may be shallow stuff for the Bard, but it snuggles nicely into the Theatricum Botanicum’s bucolic picnic paradise. Thanks to director Ellen Geer’s foxy use of the al fresco setting--and the undeniably laid-back Topanga ambience--this utterly conventional production of Shakespeare’s pleasant piffle is narrowly worth the trek.

“Two Gentlemen of Verona” raises the still-popular idea that affairs of the heart can screw up a good friendship, as in the case of Valentine (David Anthony Smith) and his fickle pal Proteus (Jon Beshara. Valentine and Proteus’ excellent adventure kicks into gear when the two buds fall for the same most-excellent babe, Julia (Melora Marshall), which hangs Act I girlfriend Sylvia (Susan Angelo) out to dry. (Think “Beverly Hills, 90210” in tights.)

All four of this staging’s lovers speak well enough, but they’re dull, dull, dull. Not surprisingly, second-banana roles such as Launce (the effortlessly deadpan Alan Blumenfeld) and Lucetta (wry Herta Ware) steal the show. In fact, the supporting players’ only serious competition in this much ado about nothing is Geer’s staging, which has bandits and others roving throughout the ravine, on the hills behind the stage, in the creek bed, into the audience and anywhere else the action takes them.

*”Two Gentlemen of Verona,” Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, Sundays, 3:30 p.m. through Aug. 1; Saturdays, 3:30 p.m., Aug. 7-Sept. 11. Ends Sept. 11. $12 for adults. (310) 455-3723. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

By-the-Numbers Drama in ‘Shot’

Harry Kurnitz, who adapted Marcel Archard’s “L’Idiote” into “A Shot in the Dark”--currently in a respectable but miscast production at Theatre 40--is best known for “Witness for the Prosecution” and “How to Steal a Million.” And judging from this less than scintillating comedy, it should probably stay that way.

Take one round-heeled parlor maid, a filthy-rich boss, his cold-fish wife and a neophyte magistrate who actually believes in the law and you’ve got the setup for this by-the-numbers interrogation drama. The plot pits the ditsy maid (earnest but unmagnetic Jennifer Parsons) against the magistrate (the too-stiff Robert Boardman), as he tries to prove she didn’t kill her jealous Spaniard lover. Unfortunately, nearly the only laughs come thanks to Jeffrey Winner’s sly performance as the magistrate’s prissy sidekick clerk Morestan.

*”A Shot in the Dark,” Theatre 40, Beverly Hills High School campus, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 and 8 p.m. (except no 8 p.m. show July 18). Ends July 18. $17-$14. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

An Uninspired ‘Chicken Press’

David Barth’s “The Chicken Press” at the Burbage is a singularly uninspired one-act with generic characters and characterless dialogue. Set in the basement of an old New York City building, the play consists almost exclusively of the mendacious but colorless banter of two college dropouts, who spend most of their time trying to avoid their packing job.

The greatest problem with Barth’s plain-wrap writing is that he distinguishes neither the fellas nor their situation. You get little idea of who these people are, why they are where they are, or why an audience should give a flying fig about any of it. Tony Barsha directs with some finesse, but the uneven cast still can’t do Barth’s work for him.

*”The Chicken Press,” Burbage Theatre, 2330 Sawtelle Blvd., West L.A., Thursdays, 8:30 p.m.; Fridays-Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends July 17. $15-$12. (310) 478-0897. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.