Wobbly Staging Sinks Intense but Superficial ‘Blue Sea’

Vegas bookies wouldn’t put money on Danny and Roberta. If any couple looks ready for a crashing fall, it’s this one.

The dysfunctional duo is the focus of John Patrick Shanley’s “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” now at the Orange Coast College Repertory Theatre. Danny is in his late 20s, insecure and frighteningly brutal. Roberta is in her early 30s, insecure and shockingly masochistic. Just your typical marriage made in hell.

They meet at the start of this intense but rather superficial play, two loners alone in a crummy bar. He wants her peanuts to go with his pitcher of beer, they insult each other, then try to come to an understanding. Pretty soon, Danny and Roberta begin to peel back their layers of scar tissue. There’s a lot, so it takes some time.

Shanley, who wrote the “Moonstruck” screenplay and “Savage in Limbo,” a more accomplished play, wants these two to get to the heart of the message, which seems to be that love is possible under any conditions. So when Danny tells Roberta that he likes to beat on people and might have killed someone the previous night, she takes it in stride. He’s equally calm when Roberta mentions that her father sexually abused her.

All that this shared misery does is bring them closer. When they end up at Roberta’s depressing flat and there’s talk of a wedding, we know that Shanley is only interested in creating a modern fable.

We might go along for the ride if director Laura Viramontes could extract more assured performances from her actors. Mark Palkoner as Danny and Roberta Cozad as Roberta are expected to hold the stage throughout, revealing all shadings of their characters. Unfortunately, they seem uncomfortable with the responsibility.

Palkoner is at his best later on, when Danny’s boyish vulnerability comes through and he desperately clings to Roberta’s promise of marriage and a healthier life. But the malicious (and more profound) side of Danny seems merely gestural.

Cozad is a little better overall, especially when Roberta steers the relationship despite Danny’s huffing and puffing. But she handles her later scenes, after romance has supposedly bloomed, less confidently. It’s hard to buy a connection between these two.

The set (Derek Bailey and Jake Kandel) is so spare as to be almost invisible. In the first act, it amounts to a pair of makeshift bar tables. In the second, only a single bed against a black backdrop. Leo Mouzo’s lighting is basic too, except for an evocative display of intertwined shadows cast on a scrim--a brief fit of passion in the dismal little room.

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* “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,” Orange Coast College’s Drama Lab Studio, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $5 and $6. (714) 432-5640. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Mark Palkoner: Danny

Roberta Cozad: Roberta

An Orange Coast College Repertory Theatre production of John Patrick Shanley’s play, directed by Laura Viramontes. Lighting: Leo Mouzo. Set coordinators: Derek Bailey and Jake Kandel. Makeup: Maggie Blascoe. Stage manager: Jeff Marx.