Theater

“Tango Woman.” Theater companies rarely organize around agendas, not like they used to in the ‘60s, when there was a war to oppose and an Earth to protect.

So to see a company united under an agenda today, when you can’t even muster a quorum for the mayor’s election, is something. It’s just that Theatre of Hope for Abused Women has a ways to go before it becomes something.

Even if art is second fiddle to the message, the presumed guarantee of agenda theater is passion. Unfortunately, only half of the group’s new show, a pair of one-acts--Maria Cozzi’s “Tango Woman” and Elyse Nass’ “The Real Wife Beater”--delivers an emotional punch.

“The Real Wife Beater,” alas, turns out to be predictable fare dished up with astonishingly poor performances.

The more artful of the two, “Tango Woman,” is also the more powerful vehicle for transporting the company’s message on domestic abuse. Cozzi establishes a Pirandello-esque world in which four archetypal women accompanied by a violinist find themselves in a nameless, place-less cafe. They’re strangers to each other, and strangers to themselves, and they’re all deeply unhappy.

While it’s easy to imagine this as a far more ominous and blackly funny piece than director Joen Lewis manages to make of it, “Tango Woman” does show us a writer tackling her own fears with imaginative weapons, and beating off didactic messages in the process.

* “Tango Woman” and “The Real Wife Beater.” The Bitter Truth Theatre, 11050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. 2 p.m. Sun. Ends April 27. $5. (818) 766-9702.