A Murky ‘Window’ on Relationships

Craig Lucas’ “Blue Window” is a slight piece, with little action, but the characters and their interactions can evoke a feeling of discovery, pensive revelations over the capriciousness of life. Yet in this presentation at the Celebrity Centre Theatre in Manor Hotel, director Brian Lord’s vision is horribly unfocused. The result is confusion and a rather charmless group of characters who can’t commit the audience to caring.

The opening scene is a nightmare of sloppy direction. The characters seem at first to inhabit the same powder-blue room (perhaps roommates tuned in to their own private worlds) instead of people occupying five separate spaces while preparing for a quiet social event.

Lord hasn’t created linked histories for these characters. The couples--the studio musician Tom (Caleb Sweazy) and the sad-faced secretary Emily (Lara Baird) or the brilliant but arrogant writer Alice (LeeAnne Matusek) and her family therapist lover Boo (Beth Stolarczyk)--don’t project that feeling of comfortable coupledom. The evening’s hostess Libby (Lauren Bailey) and her friend Griever (Petro Nicholas) don’t convey the skittishness of an ill-defined relationship where one hesitates while the other (Griever) hopefully waits to push past friendship into romance. Without this premise, the intrusion of skydiving instructor Norbert (Brian J. Wasiak) creates no tension.

This character-driven vehicle has no one in the driver’s seat.

* “Blue Window,” Celebrity Centre Theatre, Manor Hotel, 5930 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5 p.m. Ends Dec. 29. $10. (213) 960-3170. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.