THEATER REVIEW : Acting Quality Uneven in ‘Vital Signs’ Sketches : Several actors in multiple roles make some of the performances more entertaining than others.

A multitude of people relate anecdotes from their lives in “Vital Signs,” at the Plaza Players Theater in Ventura. This isn’t a unique idea: actors’ audition books are filled with comparable brief scenes, and the Plaza Players presented a similar set of sketches earlier this year, with Asian-Americans providing the stories in that one.

Credited as author of “Vital Signs” is the pseudonymous “Jane Martin,” who some may remember as the author of another set of stories under the title “Voices” telecast on PBS a few weeks ago. For what it’s worth, “Vital Signs” is funnier. As for “Jane Martin,” my guess it that it isn’t a nom de plume for an individual playwright but stands for a number of people who contributed individual sketches.

Under the direction of Michael Maynez, several actors play multiple roles. For example, there’s Jeff Hendrych as the manager of a cocaine hot line who’s hooked on Diet Pepsi; Jennifer Jennings as a waitress in a West Virginia coffee shop who leaves town with an evangelist who travels in an 18-wheeler; Michelle Finnegan as a divorcee on the make; Robert Reilly, a sharpshooter on a bad day, and Susan Minshew, a guide at Graceland convinced that Mick Jagger is the Antichrist. The cast also includes Helen Murray, who, like the others, plays multiple roles scattered among the show’s 38 pieces.

There’s nothing in particular that ties the stories together, except that all of the participants and characters are adults, all the stories take place in the United States, no minorities are specifically represented, and most everybody seems to think that delivering lines with a lower-class Southern accent constitutes “acting.”

As might be expected, some of these sketches are more entertaining than others, and some of the performers are more comfortable on stage than others. Even at its best, though, the show feels as though it was improvised next door by the local TheaterSports troupe.

Details

* WHAT: “Vital Signs.”

* WHEN: 8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday (through June 10).

* WHERE: Plaza Players Theater, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura.

* HOW MUCH: $10 (adults), $8 (students and seniors).

* FYI: Not recommended for children.

* CALL: 643-9460.