Smart Words in a Simple Story

Playwright Dan Bucatinsky has mastered the art of sardonic badinage. Indeed, his one-act, two-person comedy “I Know You Are, but What Am I?” at the Tiffany consists of little else. However, this is puffery finely rendered, a light-footed verbal sparring match with enough fancy ducks, dodges and jabs to distract from its welterweight plot.

The story--a standard boy-neurotic-meets-girl-neurotic yarn--fits in a nutshell, with room left over. Jason (Bucatinsky) leads a cautious lifestyle that is virtually risk-free yet remains preoccupied with the possibility of imminent catastrophe. Susan (Nicole Tocantins), a nursery school teacher and fledgling drunk, has been rendered so prickly by her alcoholic parents’ diseased marriage that she lacerates any man who comes within striking distance. In the course of the play’s running time, the two meet, banter, sleep together, quarrel and--of course--reconcile.

The course of true love may run predictably here, but Bucatinsky’s acid-etched dialogue drips with uncommon sophistication. Under Don Amendolia’s breezy direction, Tocantins and Bucatinsky are as bitchy, twitchy and manic as their roles require, maneuvering their way through a barrage of one-liners with the derring-do of old campaigners. The evening opens with the curtain-raiser “Hate Mail,” a satire of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters,” also starring Bucatinsky and Tocantins.

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* “I Know You Are, but What Am I?” Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Tuesdays only, 8 p.m. Ends April 21. $15. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.