Love Is a Many Distorted Thing in ‘Private Eyes’

Steven Dietz’s brittle new comedy “Private Eyes,” at the Odyssey, parodies the evanescence of truth in modern relationships.

A sort of “Rashomon” with laughs, Dietz’s play opens with an audition. Lisa (Erin Noble), an actress who is reading for director-playwright Matthew (Christopher Gerson), is both attracted to Matthew and put off by his intellectual superciliousness. Later, when Matthew shows up at the restaurant where she works, Lisa demonstrates that the abuse of petty power can be a two-way street.

Lisa and Matthew’s sexy, facile interplay betokens the first stages of a fascinating love affair--or so we suppose. However, Lisa and Matthew are actually husband and wife, rehearsing a play for Adrian (John Boyle), yet another temperamental director with a sexual fascination for Lisa. Eventually, this play within a play segues into yet another “acting out”--Matthew’s psychoanalytical session with his therapist, Frank (David Dunard). Matthew tries to sort out the truth about his wife’s relationship with Adrian, but his tendency to embellish the truth deepens the perceptual muddle. Then there’s the mysterious Cory (Nancy Bell), a sinuous enigma with a keen interest in Matthew.

Director Ron Sossi and a terrifically energetic cast do yeomen’s work with Dietz’s construct, which poses a tricky problem in its staging. Since virtually every scene ends with a plot twist, the actors must play it very straight so as not to give away the surprise. At the same time, they must delicately heighten the proceedings to score laughs. What results is a kind of archly sincere intensity difficult to sustain without straining.

Despite this, Sossi displays his performers handsomely in Dietz’s fun-house mirror of a play, which reflects lavishly distorted versions of reality--much, Dietz would have it, as does the average marriage. In the final analysis, however, “Private Eyes” sacrifices the human factor to its knee-jerk unpredictability, ultimately losing its emotional core in its own labyrinthine cleverness.

BE THERE

“Private Eyes,” Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 9. $18.50-$22.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.