Theater Reviews : Cast Offers Little Support for Couple’s Realistic ‘Split’

John Barrymore referred to his several marriages as “bus accidents.” They were grand and highly visible. The dissolving marriage Michael Weller writes about in “Split,” at the Ensemble Theatre, is more like a fender-bender involving two Volkswagens.

In the first act, subtitled “At Home,” Paul and Carol are having a spat. While Paul was preparing the salad, Carol was unconsciously poking a carrot with a pencil. Well, that’s how easily arguments sometimes start. This time the tiff escalates on a roller-coaster ride that eventually leads to their decision to separate. After six years of marriage, it seems these two should never have been together at all.

Victor Mena and Sarah Neal bite into the roles of Paul and Carol with incisive detail and a sense of reality that brings the dialogue to life.

Under Roosevelt Blankenship Jr.’s sure direction, though the split seems inevitable, the gradation of emotional rhythms has an honesty that is involving and a little unnerving.

In Act II, subtitled “Split,” the play disintegrates as oddly and as purposelessly as the marriage. It finds both Paul and Carol finding their way through a singles world that belongs only in the pre-AIDS era when the play was written.

Mena and Neal continue their strong performances, but only Autumn Hafenfeld, as one of Paul’s close friends, and Christopher Wright, as a waiter who ogles Hafenfeld and later gets involved in a silly video shoot with Carol, are anywhere close to keeping up.

*

It all shows how much easier a director’s job is when he has the right actors.

But Blankenship hasn’t been able to get the rest of the cast to sound as though they’re past a first reading.

Paula Fell as another friend of the couple’s, Sean Ireland as the looney video hound and Arturo Ransom as Marge’s male-bimbo-other-half don’t seem to be aware of what their characters are thinking when they speak.

* “Split,” Ensemble Theatre, 844 E. Lincoln Ave., Suite E (Rear), Orange. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Saturday. $10-$15. (714) 998-2670. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes. Victor Mena: Paul

Sarah Neal: Carol

Christopher Wright: Waiter

Autumn Hafenfeld: Marge

Paula Fell: Jean

Sean Ireland: Jay

Arturo Ransom: Bob

An Ensemble Theatre production of Michael Weller’s play. Direction/scenic design: Roosevelt Blankenship Jr. Stage manager: Jim Mongell.