The ‘Sighs’ Behind These Males’ Angst

Ah, the plight of the post-feminist male. Once the lordly master of all he surveyed, he now drifts aimlessly, trying desperately to find some middle ground between machismo and wimpiness.

There are no sweat lodges in Ed Simpson’s riotous new male bonding comedy “Elephant Sighs” at Theatre/Theater’s new Hollywood space--no banging of drums or carefully orchestrated masculine rituals, just the instinctual herding together of a woefully endangered species, a rare breed struggling to survive massive encroachments on its territory.

Here, that territory has been reduced to a junk-filled meeting room in a small-town community center, where a group of men regularly gather to . . . well, just to be. Regular members include Dink (Jack Kehler), a hug-happy “nurturer” whose wife suffers from Alzheimer’s disease; Perry (David Wells), a woebegone former pastor whose flock unanimously booted him from the fold; and Nick (John Loprieno), a notoriously slipshod contractor in the throes of a career-wrecking lawsuit and painful divorce. Presiding over them all, with guru-like equanimity, is Leo (Alan Bergmann), the elder statesman of the group, whose antecedents are vague but whose presence provides the psychic glue for his fractured fellow sufferers.

Into the gathering wanders Joel (Kirk Baily). A lawyer, Joel is new to the savanna--and he’s put off by its indigenous inhabitants. Still, Joel can’t leave until he finds out “why?” Why, in particular, this group meets, and what the purpose of this strangely amorphous gathering really is. But, before the evening ends, Joel must confront a larger “Why?”--a big existential shout of helplessness that hovers, unanswered, in the air.

“Elephant Sighs” is deceptively unassuming. There’s not much plot here, and the conversation meanders to a nonsensical degree--but the nonsense, and the play, are very much to the point. The mostly blue-collar characters speak in a hilarious hybrid of uneducated obtuseness and politically correct buzz words. Don’t let the surface banality fool you. The emotions of these men, however imperfectly communicated, are agonizing, their need for comfort and companionship as acute as hunger and thirst.

The passionately fine actors are all perfectly cast, although Bergmann still seemed a bit shaky on lines for opening weekend. Director Michael Lilly interlaces the proceedings with a deadpan seriousness that contrasts well with Simpson’s purposeful whimsy. And of whimsy there is plenty. After all, under the havoc and pain of displacement, even extinction can have its lighter side. Like stuffed dodos in glass cages, these unwieldy and obsolete creatures present a spectacle at once ludicrous--and pitiable.

* “Elephant Sighs,” Theatre/Theater, Pacific Theaters Hollywood Building, 6425 Hollywood Blvd., 4th Floor, Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Oct. 4. $15. (323) 871-9433. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.