A Sense of Loss

The key word in the title “In Search of Lost Wings” is lost.

Though Steven Sater’s writing feels mostly true-hearted, only the theme of loss holds these five one-acts together. Besides making for a fairly depressing evening, the first four feel like Meisner acting exercises rather than parts of something larger.

The first half of the program at the Meisner Center for the Arts comprises four vignettes, widely varied in setting. In “Tibetan Tango,” two wealthy women dish their lovers and each other over drinks at the Plaza. In ridiculous satin dresses that scream costume, Camilla (Kimberly Dennison) and Meghan (Wylie Small) paddle in shallow circles around their boy-toy troubles.

Though these women aren’t particularly likable, the piece does have the most successful dramatic structure of the four shorts. Camilla slowly forces Meghan to confess that she slept with Camilla’s lover. As her emotions briefly boil over, Dennison is less convincing than the cool Small, who cuts off any show of emotion with lines like, “Have you lost all sense of savoir-faire?”

In the end, indiscretion cancels out indiscretion, and the two settle back into their cynical, passionless lives--as stuck with each other as they are with their wealthy hubbies.

“Restitution,” is another conflict between women--this time a wife confronting her husband’s lover. Listening in the next room, the husband (John Desiderio) is entranced by his wife’s sudden display of chutzpah. Unfortunately, the audience is not, since Karman Kruschke doesn’t give the part enough anger or passion. The girlfriend, Allison Christian, is just mousy enough to be bossed around. As directed by Peter Basch, the whole scene ends with a whimper, literally fading out in a way that makes you wonder if the lights went down too soon.

“Echo and Narcissus” focuses on an unbelievably vain gay man (Patrick Wood) and his female friend (Dennison). Wood seems appropriately bored at first, but is unable to carry off his increasingly obnoxious lines. The long silences between the two deflate rather than build tension, causing the scene to drag.

But it’s nothing compared to the pain of watching Ben (Donald Agnelli) and Sonda (Kelly Maguire) drink “Highballs at Sunset.” A wealthy widower, Ben has married a Las Vegas showgirl. Watching them together, we don’t know whom to pity more. Maguire’s squeaky talk about drinks and cheese-whiz gets quickly grating as the scene moves at the brutally glacial pace that no doubt represents their marriage.

The second half of the bill is taken up entirely by “Checkers,” sort of a “Courtship of Eddie’s Father” gone awry. Carl (Mark Atienza) is trying to raise his 9-year-old son with a little help from ex-girlfriend Josie (Casey Payden)--a pet name he apparently bestows on all his girlfriends.

Carl at first seems like the voice of reason, chastising Josie for taking Hobey (Atticus Travis) to the zoo when he should be at school. Still, the more you watch Carl, the less you understand him--the same criticism levied at the main character in Sater’s “Carbondale Dreams,” which played at the Meisner Center last spring. Only one line--”I’m sorry she thought you were such a loser, Carl”--offers any insight into the goings-on here. What becomes clear is that Carl has a compulsion to replace Hobey’s mother, not for the child, but for himself. Unfortunately, that turn isn’t entirely dramatically satisfying.

Atienza is a convincing working stiff, but doesn’t seem flighty enough for his actions at the end. Too detached at first, Payden falls more into her part as the play progresses. Director Susan Fenichell keeps the scenes moving, but the overall play is slowed by frequent--and sometimes unnecessary--set changes. The music she’s chosen for these breaks can’t make up for the loss of momentum.

BE THERE

“In Search of Lost Wings,” Sanford Meisner Center for the Arts, 5124 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. through Dec. 14. $12. (818) 509-9641.