An Offbeat and Unbalanced ‘Easter’

“It’s hard to be special,” declares Wilma (Diana Castle), the Southern belle and former cheerleader turned psycho housewife in Will Scheffer’s “Easter,” at the 2100 Square Feet performance space.

Scheffer creates an eerie universe of Wonderbread, middle-class Midwestern America, where churches have been mysteriously burning down. Newly arrived in this small Kansas town, Wilma tells her nervous husband Matthew (Todd Jeffries) that she hears the voice of the Virgin Mary goading her into pyromania because “smoke rising up to the sky is like God going home.” Matthew has another reason to worry when Wilma conceives a passion for the beautiful feet of her plumber (Chip Bent).

Castle is winningly benign and genial, shining with a delightful light of happiness, and her Wilma steals every scene. Director Steve Tietsort fails to bring the other actors to the same level of comic lunacy and to make the ending sequences effective.

This wants to be a gentle, offbeat comedy in the Coen brothers’ “Raising Arizona” tradition--Bent uncannily resembles Nicolas Cage--but doesn’t quite make it there.

* “Easter,” 2100 Square Feet, 5615 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 18. $15. (213) 936-6818. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.