Ventura County Weekend : THEATER : Conejo Players Keep Funny Lines Flowing : Neil Simon’s ‘Lost in Yonkers’ blends comedy and drama, while Peter Shaffer’s ‘Lettice and Lovage’ offers dry British wit.

The Conejo Players continue through September with their evening performances of Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lost in Yonkers,” directed by Michael Tachco, as well as Saturday and Sunday matinees of Peter Shaffer’s arch-comedy “Lettice and Lovage,” directed by Terry Fishman.

Both are comedies, sort of. But Simon follows one of the funniest scenes in any of his plays with a confrontation that is one of his most harrowing. The play’s escalating tension is between Grandma Kurnitz and the mildly retarded Bella. Eleanor Brand gives one of the year’s finest performances as the iron-willed matriarch, adding rich dimension to what could be a cartoonish figure. Sharon Skinner is effective as daughter Bella, and Paul Roache is memorable as the hapless traveling salesman Eddie.

Patrick Rogers and Brandon Ambar capably play Eddie’s young sons, Jay and Arty, and Kerri Gordon Yim and Peter Goldfinger appear as two more of Grandma’s traumatized offspring in this portrait of life at the beginning of World War II.

“Lettice and Lovage” is a more traditional comedy, though Shaffer has a serious point to make. Lettice Douffet (Adrienne Maria Hewitt) is a tour guide in England’s most boring Stately Home. “Nothing has ever happened here in 400 years,” she laments.

So she begins to make up history for the home, which gets her in trouble with her employer, personified by bureaucrat Lotte Schoen (Fern McMillan). Hilarity, of the dry British variety, ensues. But because Shaffer’s script is very wordy and very literate, one must pay stricter than usual attention.

That said, the play, and performances by Barrett Lantham and Sonje Fortag as well as the leads, warrant the effort. Director Fishman has cast the play mostly with fellow Brits.

Opening This Weekend: “Guys and Dolls” opens Friday night at the Camarillo Airport Theater. Anybody with the last name Dillinger, Barker or Capone will be admitted free to any performance this opening weekend, producer Gabriel Vega says. For further information or reservations, call 389-3193.

A diverse crew of British boarders commit--then solve--crimes for their own amusement in “Breath of Spring,” opening Friday at the Elite Theatre Company in Oxnard’s Heritage Square. Call 525-6301 for reservations or information.

Casting Call: Director Patricia Lynn-Strickland will be casting the Elite Theatre Company’s November-December production of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” on Monday through Wednesday between 6 and 9:30 p.m. Roles are open for seven women and five men, in the age span of 15-70. For further information and audition appointments, call Lynn-Strickland at 495-3715.

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DETAILS

* WHAT: “Lettice and Lovage.”

* WHEN: Saturday and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 through Sept. 24.

* WHERE: Conejo Players Theater, 351 S. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks.

* HOW MUCH: $5 general admission.

* WHAT: “Lost in Yonkers.”

* WHEN: Thursday through Saturday nights at 8 through Sept. 30.

* WHERE: Conejo Players Theater, 351 S. Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks.

* HOW MUCH: $8 general admission Thursdays; $10 Friday and $12 Saturday.

* FYI: Discounts are available for groups, children under 12 and seniors. For reservations or further information, call 495-3715.