‘Mamet Matters’ Focuses on Playwright’s Light Side

“Mamet Matters,” declares the title of this double bill of one-acts at the Hudson Theatre. Yet these sprightly little plays are not what most people have in mind when they think of David Mamet’s work.

“Bobby Gould in Hell” and “The Frog Prince” are excursions into fantasy, with a light touch that’s more rewarding than the heavier hand Mamet sometimes wields. Neither play is new, but the production company (Broken Leg Productions) is, and it does full justice to Mamet’s creations.

Of the two plays, “Bobby Gould” is closer to the full-fledged Mamet style. It’s set in an office, as was “Speed-the-Plow,” another Mamet play featuring a character named Bobby Gould. The office here, however, is literally in hell.

Benjamin King plays the newly deceased Gould, attired in a hipper-than-thou outfit (designed by Dick Magnanti). He’s sitting in an anteroom of the afterlife, awaiting his judgment. Screams of the damned are audible from an adjacent room.

Gould’s primary judge is a sour, sarcastic interrogator (John Billingsley), looking goofy in fishing clothes because his leisure time was interrupted by this latest call of duty. The inquisitor draws on voluminous files about Gould’s life, with the help of a fresh-faced clerk (Kevin Murphy, who alternates with Jason Low).

A witness for the prosecution appears in the form of Gould’s former flame Glenna (Portia Dawson), whose extreme hostility is in line with some of Mamet’s other depictions of women. Gould, no slouch himself in the cynicism department, learns a thing or two.

“The Frog Prince” allows three of the same actors to demonstrate remarkable versatility. King becomes the title character, much more voluble and full of hot air than the chastened Bobby Gould, though both get a strikingly stage-worthy comeuppance. Billingsley, a regular at A Noise Within, goes from the amusingly bilious interrogator to the prince’s impressively staunch Servingman. Dawson transforms from harridan into the most congenial of milkmaids.

Husky-voiced Meredith McMinn joins the cast of “Prince” as the formidable peasant who brings the prince down from his high horse, even though her face remains concealed. Robert G. Egan directed.

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* “Mamet Matters,” Hudson Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Aug. 22. $15. (323) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.