THEATER REVIEW : A Slice of Suburban Warfare : Despite built-in setbacks, Irvine Community troupe creates tension in a work about a would-be rape victim in a ‘safe’ town.

It’s more than a little eerie passing through the safe, quiet suburban streets of Irvine’s Turtle Rock neighborhood and walking into the community recreation center to watch William Mastrosimone’s play about a man trying to rape a woman who lives . . . on a suburban street.

The unspoken message underlying the Irvine Community Theatre’s production of “Extremities” is that it can happen here.

To be sure, Mastrosimone’s highly orchestrated and sometimes arch drama is also about how the woman, Marjorie (Sydney Thorton-Smith), fights back. But as when fire threatened Turtle Rock last autumn, fear is in the air in director Lenore Stjerne’s pressurized staging.

The pressure comes mostly from Stjerne’s actors, who have more than a few strikes against them going in.

One is the theater’s fairly ridiculous stage in the community hall, a shallow space fit for a band or lecturer, but not for an intense four-character drama. Further, the raised stage is so far from the non-raked audience seating that, without actors committed to putting the play across, no play has a chance in this hall. The program, with extreme understatement, refers to “less than ideal conditions.”

The second strike against the actors, oddly enough, is Mastrosimone’s play. On one hand, he’s concocted a can’t-miss situation. Marjorie, alone, finds Raul (Michael Hebler) in the home she shares with two female roommates. She foils his attempted rape, hogties him, and tortures him into such submission that her roommates actually begin to sympathize with the guy.

Alas, just as Mastrosimone can’t hide the natural conflicts here, he also can’t hide crude plot and character manipulations and a bewildering inability to maintain a tone.

It’s one thing for Chekhov to inject laughs into his play’s tragically absurd incidents, but quite another for Mastrosimone to eke out guffaws when the stench of rape and pain is thick on stage.

Marjorie’s roomies are stick figures and plot servants--Terry (Valerie Ludwig) is all weakness and indecision, while Patricia (Terra Shelman) is official spokeswoman for the liberal, social-worker set. She’s also the voice of law and reason compared to Marjorie’s law-of-the-jungle revenge ethic.

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But what kinds of friends are these? Patricia, liberal feminist though she may be, comes very close to accusing Marjorie of asking for it by puttering around the house in her nightie. At times like this, “Extremities” feels lost in an orgy of pseudo-dramatics.

Lost, though, becomes found at Irvine. This is partly because Mastrosimone remains very clear about Marjorie’s and Raul’s characters. But it’s largely because Thorton-Smith and Hebler are very serious about their assignments.

Thorton-Smith never, ever, lapses into victim mode and suggests Marjorie’s fear that she may be capable of matching Raul’s ruthlessness. Hebler is a revelation, a trapeze-wire actor if there ever was one, forever daring to make Raul a smart, winning guy.

Raul is always trying to spread charisma around the room. Hebler indicates that, given other conditions, his Raul might have his own talk show, or even a play.

Mastrosimone has described “Extremities” as “revenge at its peak,” but a performance like Hebler’s considerably complicates the revenge factor.

Even with this unsightly stage, the secondhand nature of the (uncredited) set and the play’s forced ending, the victim-oppressor equation is something to mull over as you walk out into the suburban night.

* “Extremities,” Irvine Community Theatre, Turtle Rock Community Park, 1 Sunnyhill, Irvine. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; one matinee Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends May 7. $6-$8. (714) 857-5496. 2 hours, 10 minutes. Sydney Thorton-Smith: Marjorie

Michael Hebler: Raul

Valerie Ludwig: Terry

Terra Shelman: Patricia

An Irvine Community Theatre production of William Mastrosimone’s play. Directed by Lenore Stjerne. Lights and sound: Todd Kulczyk.