Biting Comedy Wags ‘Four Dogs and Bone’

Don’t expect a dogfight of the four-legged kind in John Patrick Shanley’s sendup of the movie industry, “Four Dogs and a Bone,” at the Tamarind Theatre. Instead, there’s a lot of cattiness as a middle-aged producer, a playwright-turned-screenwriter and two actresses calculate and maneuver to reshape a script in this well-acted, viciously funny production.

Brenda (Susan Priver) relies on chanting, a well-rehearsed sob story and some casting coach techniques as she prepares to appear in her first movie. Stage actress Collette (Shareen Mitchell) is at a decisive moment in her career. In her sixth celluloid outing, this performance decides whether she becomes a star or a character actress.

Victor (Peter Gregory), facing rewrites of his first movie script, is sleeping with Brenda, but he’s not sure if she’s in love with him. Bradley (Henry Olek) demonstrates what producers do as he tries to manage this over-budget movie by setting the other three against one another and the unseen “weak” director.

Director Anthony Caldarella referees this group of characters “scratching” for their lives with a balanced objectivity--each is self-absorbed and ambitious. Olek’s Bradley is walking anxiety without an inner awareness of his back-shifts and contradictions. Gregory plays Victor as a regular Joe, new to the scene but not naive. But the real fire is in the hissing and posturing between Priver and Mitchell as their characters try to determine who’s top dog.

* “Four Dogs and a Bone,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Sundays, 7 p.m.; Mondays-Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Ends March 2. $15. (213) 368-6107. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.