Lukewarm ‘Bathwater’

Christopher Durang writes satirical plays that are all surface. His work is the theatrical equivalent of Pop Art. His characters seem like graphic portraits drawn with Ben Day dots. They are simplified, two-dimensional, colorful.

Case in point: Durang’s 1983 comedy “Baby With the Bathwater,” being revived at the Vanguard Theatre Ensemble in a production without distracting frills or directorial conceits.

When the lights come up on a white wicker bassinet in the darkness at center stage, the image more or less stands for everything that follows--childhood, loneliness, abandonment. It seems that an icon of the entire human experience, not just infancy, is being presented.

When the lights come up still further, the bassinet as atavistic symbol gives way in significance to a married couple seen standing over it: John (Howard Johnston), the father who coos at “Daddy’s little baked potato,” and Helen (Paulette Kendall), the mother who objects to his calling their baby a vegetable.

Baby has no name yet. They don’t know if it’s male or female. “We can decide later,” they say, referring to the gender as well as the name. Clearly, we are not in a realistic world. We are in familiar but unreal territory--not surreal, ludicrous.

Durang offers non sequiturs. Illogical disconnections seem perfectly logical. Helen suddenly announces, apropos of nothing, that she wants a divorce. Says John, perplexed: “I don’t understand. We were very happy yesterday.”

The oversimplified reaction, the lack of nuance, is corrosively droll. And the humor becomes viciously malevolent with the appearance of Nanny, a virago played by Kirsten S. Vangsness, like a Victorian Nightingale. Lascivious, bossy--Florence, she’s not. She’s a dominatrix.

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Nanny sweeps onstage with demonic energy and a veddy British manner, taking over the proceedings and, in this production, rescuing it from a pair of lackluster parents whose characterization as unemployed Dad and depressed Mom need considerably more particularity than they get from Johnston and Kendall.

The flatness of perspective that Durang insists on is, admittedly, difficult to play. Vangsness has it easier than the others, doling out “quickies in the kitchen” to John and high-toned pronouncements such as “There is no such thing as right and wrong. There’s just fun.”

Not that Mom and Dad don’t have their share of mockery. John medicates his insomnia: “We’re going to take Nyquil and Quaaludes and get some sleep,” he explains. Helen, looking at Daisy (that’s what they’ve named their boy), announces: “It’s a very grouchy baby. We’re not very happy with it.”

We meet, among others, a homeless woman and would-be baby-napper (Cheryl Etzel) whose dog ate her own baby and whose moral compass is skewed, like everyone else’s, for the most fatuous reasons. Her faults are excusable, she complacently lets us know, because she lacks furniture.

The second act broadens the scope of “Baby With the Bathwater” with scenes set in a playground--Daisy is growing up--and in the office of a school principal. But these scenes actually are more interesting for the opportunities they provide the actors to double in different roles than for the quality of the material. Vangsness is again outstanding, this time with a 180-degree turn from the charms of a femme fatale to the butch bluster of a Bronx loudmouth.

It is only in the final section of the play, however, that “Baby” builds any kind of emotional momentum. It comes with the introduction of Daisy, now 17 and a screwed-up adolescent whose pitiable condition points closer to true north than anyone else’s, notwithstanding more than a dozen years’ worth of psychoanalysis.

Of course, there is no such thing as true north in the world of Durang’s plays. And even if there were, Daisy (Christopher Sullivan) couldn’t find it. The well-cast Sullivan lends Daisy a proper neurasthenia, as well as a sense of sadness, loss and vacancy.

Director Wade Williamson makes good use of the stage. And there are two fine technical touches: a trompe l’oeil window painting with real curtains and the music-box chimes of the sound design, which sets a satiric tone of false naivete.

Durang’s work is an acquired taste. Much of it falls flat even then. “Baby With the Bathwater” is one of his better plays, somewhere in the middle of his range. The Vanguard does what it can.

* “Baby With the Bathwater,” Vanguard Ensemble Theatre, 699A S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Ends Feb. 8. $13-$15. (714) 526-8007. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Cheryl Etzel: Cynthia/Woman/Mrs. Willoughby/Susan

Howard Johnston: John

Paulette Kendall: Helen

Christopher Sullivan: Daisy

Kirsten S. Vangsness: Nanny/Woman/Miss Pringle

A Vanguard Theatre Ensemble production of a play by Christopher Durang. Directed by Wade Williamson. Scenery and properties design: Esther Usaraga. Costume, hair and makeup design: Kimberly Eichelberger.. Lighting design: John Vasquez. Music arranged and composed by Bobby Nafarrette. Audio effects design: Brian Pate. Stage manager: Sunshine Miller.