THEATER REVIEW : Playing Off Southern Family’s Eccentricities : ‘A Moment of Silence’ premieres at Simi arts center with plenty of high jinks and zany antics.

Some day, somebody is going to write a play about an intelligent Southern familyall but devoid of eccentricities. Until then, we have a vast canon of works portraying Southerners as, shall we say, colorful. Add to that lengthy list “A Moment of Silence,” receiving its world premiere performance at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.

“A Moment of Silence” was written and directed by local playwright Angela Wayne Randazzo, whose “Time for Murder” was presented at the same theater a year ago March. This one isn’t a comic mystery; it’s comic Southern Gothic, sort of what you’d get if you put “Steel Magnolias,” “Daddy’s Dyin’--Who’s Got the Will?” and the cast of TV’s “Designing Women” into a blender and set the speed to “chop.”

Central to the story is the Watkins family. Mama has just died, and her body is laid in state in the sitting room while her daughter Odette (Irene Silbert) and mute son Honey (Lee Altmar) search for her will, hoping that a third sibling, Delbert (Michael Pratt) won’t show up to collect his share. Honey wants to keep the family home and live in it; Odette, a madam whose brothel near Dollywood has just folded, wants to sell--she’s up to her armpits in gambling debts.

The other central character is Lucy (Jan Glasband), a nosy neighbor and Delbert’s long-ago jilted girlfriend who sells wigs for a living. See--just a typical bunch of zany Southerners.

Add to the mix Mariette (Laura Muat, alternating with Paprika Clark), one of Odette’s now-homeless girls; Odette’s wealthy suitor, Henry (Rusty Perry); a local minister (Paul Forster) and Uncle Sam (Dudley Wyncoop), who wanders aimlessly throughout the play in a manner that may be amusing to anybody who hasn’t had to deal with Alzheimer’s disease.

High jinks, need we add, ensue.

Randazzo’s script is broad, obvious and often quite funny, with acting to match. The story goes off in strange directions from time to time, and the ending seems to be tacked on. In other words, nobody’s going to confuse this with “A Streetcar Named Desire.” On the other hand, “A Moment of Silence” is a lot easier to enjoy.

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Details

* WHAT: “A Moment of Silence.”

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through April 28 and May 5 to 7.

* WHERE: Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3190 Cochran St., Simi Valley.

* HOW MUCH: Adults $5; students and seniors, $3.

* CALL: 583-9763.

* FYI: Admission is first-come, first-served, no reservations.