Six Short Plays Add Up to Mixed ‘Nature’

Theatre of NOTE’s “The Nature of Things” is a bill of six short plays, loosely focused on turning points in people’s lives. The playlets fit well into this black-bricked box in bohemian Hollywood. With evocative lighting by David Robkin and sound by Laura Finnegan, the sum of the production is more intriguing than its parts.

The umbrella title “The Nature of Things” is also the title of David Golden’s first play, really just a scene, in which three men investigate an opening into another dimension. It’s like the beginning of a “Twilight Zone” episode.

More complete, though still no more than a sketch, is Stewart Skelton’s “Blackout,” in which we see only the hands of a group of six people seated around a table, idly chatting as they play Russian roulette--with some serious results. It’s a clever juxtaposition of the mundane and the shocking.

Jacquelyn Reingold’s “Tunnel of Love” is more of a play, the tale of a young woman who was born with no vagina and her attempt to rectify the situation. Director Matthew Feitshans staged this with dizzying comic style, abetted by the performances of Miranda Viscoli and Jonathan Klein.

By contrast, Courtney Selan’s direction of Kiff Scholl’s “Freida and the Arsonist” needs, well, more fire. This conversation between a lonely widow and her new boarder drags. Perhaps an understudy’s presence at the reviewed performance affected the timing.

Following intermission is the longest piece, Dennis Miles’ “Rosa Mundy.” Rosa’s tired of tending a decrepit father in a small New Mexico town. So she cuts him loose--and cuts herself loose, as well, from any kind of restraint. Elaina McBroom’s face churns with desperation as her Rosa tries to make up for a lifetime of repression and regret. Diane Robinson’s spirited staging keeps the play churning as well, although it’s too short for Rosa to move very far beyond the cartoon stereotype of an emotionally ravenous woman.

Last up is Hank Bunker’s “Lefty,” about an encounter between a blind man and a curious girl. It’s too much of a grace note to serve as the final chord.

* “The Nature of Things,” Theatre of NOTE, 1517 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends June 15. $7-$12. (213) 856-8611. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.