‘Grown Up’ Could Use a More Mature Attitude

Television situation comedies are written by committee, and so, it seems, is at least one new play from the fledgling Spare Change Productions, based at the comfortably inviting Chance Theatre in Anaheim Hills.

This writing committee--made up of the show’s director (Oahh Nguyen), sound designer (Chris Ceballos), prop master (Jeff Hellebrand) and costumer (Erika Ceporius)--has come up with an occasionally sweet-natured yet familiar and derivative comedy-drama about America’s most over examined demographic: twentysomethings. The title is awkward, yet significant: “But I Don’t Feel Grown Up.”

The play has some growing to do, too. Paul (Robert Fileta) is a writer stuck some 30 pages into his novel who also bitterly bangs out a weekly column for a local paper. That Paul, only turning 25, is bitter about being in a position journalists twice his age would kill for--writing a column about whatever he wishes--is only the beginning of this comedy’s curious, unexamined notions.

Stranger still is Paul’s attraction to his thoroughly dislikable girlfriend Nina (Heather Kjos), a schoolteacher who talks like the sort of catty sitcom character our playwriting committee apparently finds amusing. Nina is less a character than a figure stuffed with one-liners. She’s the kind of stage character for whom you count the minutes until she exits stage left or right.

What makes this bizarre, given the play’s issues, is that we are asked to believe that it is Paul who has personal problems--his jealousy of Nina’s and other characters’ seemingly having it made with their careers and his feelings of inadequacy as a poorly-paid freelancer--when his biggest problem is Nina.

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Sure, he blows it when he blurts out over dinner with her friends (in an offstage scene that would have been choice to see) that they’re going to get married, without checking with her first. Nina’s handling of this and her responses should tell Paul he’s much better off without her.

That isn’t the agenda of this play’s committee, however. Paul, as played by Fileta, is a pretty likable guy who maybe worries too much, but he’s so preferable by miles to almost anyone else on stage that he seems like an inappropriate subject for having deep conflicts. His worst fault really may be the people he chooses to have around him, like his best buddy Robert (Casey Long), who seems to be in a contest with Nina for Most Obnoxious.

Paul’s younger sister Dani (Amy Blomquist) appears later to tell him--after a contrived delay--the news that his father, a frustrated novelist, has killed himself. Dani lectures Paul, too, but at least Fileta and Blomquist have some genuine, natural chemistry on stage.

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Kjos and Long are just showboating their way through their highly problematic roles, and this--not Paul’s supposed problems--are the play’s burden to bear. Filmmaker Kevin Smith, of “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” fame, also seems to be a burden. Not so much because Robert constantly refers to how Nina has “stolen” his best friend away from him (a la the “Chasing Amy” plot line), but because the play sometimes apes Smith’s style of casual banter. Other times, it’s a pure sitcom. Still other times, it’s a soap opera with expository dialogue.

You sense the results of too many cooks in the kitchen, and why it’s usually best to write a play with only one of them.

* “But I Don’t Feel Grown Up,” Chance Theatre, 5576 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim Hills. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Sept. 19. $13-$15. (714) 777-3033. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Robert Fileta: Paul

Heather Kjos: Nina

Casey Long: Robert

Amy Blomquist: Dani

A Spare Change production of Oahh Nguyen’s, Chris Ceballos’, Jeff Hellebrand’s and Erika Ceporius’ comedy-drama. Directed by Nguyen. Set: Fred Hatfield. Lights: Jim Book. Costumes: Ceporius. Sound: Ceballos. Props: Hellebrand.