Stage Light

Some time ago, Catherine Castellani titled her new play “Rent,” until a certain Off-Broadway musical came along. She changed the title to “Profit.” But hold on--that’s the title of an unjustly short-lived, dazzlingly dark TV series starring Adrian Pasdar depicting the depths of corporate skulduggery.

It got us to thinking, because Castellani’s “Profit,” at the Eclectic Company Theatre, depicts the depths of law office skulduggery. Actor Kevin Black’s succinct, sharp-edged performance even suggests that his egomaniacal lawyer Patrick Killian could be Pasdar’s brother. And in its occasional flurry of quick, cutaway scenes to various characters, when barely a word is spoken, “Profit” indicates a playwright who has studied her share of film and TV scripts.

These “movie plays” were all the rage for awhile in the ‘80s, especially at the height of L.A. Theatre Center and its stable of authors such as Marlane Meyer. They were typically set in contemporary urban locales, peppered with nefarious types and deeply flawed central characters, told in lots of settings, cutting around quickly from scene to scene.

“Profit” brings all of this back--which makes it feel somewhat dated--but then Castellani misses the point of good screen/playwriting, which is how to resolve a compelling setup. It is delicious stuff early on, under Gene Wolande’s taut direction, as we watch rising lawyer Christina Jayne (Khrystyne Haje take on a male escort named Matt (K.C. O’Neill) as her “boy mistress,” at the same time finding herself drawn into a cooler, more conventional relationship by Black’s Killian, a partner in the firm.

Everyone is trying to profit by everyone else--including Audra Maruska (Kate A. Parker), a lowly researcher working with Christina in the firm and trying to gain her as an ally by arranging for the male escort in the first place. By the end of Act I, Castellani has brilliantly brought things into nerve-racking, ironic relief, with Killian and Matt confronting each other alone in Christina’s apartment.

This is really going somewhere; then, in Act II, it stops. Audra talks to us in direct address, but it increasingly feels as if she’s in a play of her own. (Parker’s corporate hipster attitude also increasingly becomes more mannered.) Christina’s character is uneasily conceived, able to cut off Matt without notice at one moment, vulnerably paranoid the next, alternately repelled and attracted to Killian--it is all too many contradictions to cram into one persona, and Haje appears understandably confused.

At the same time, Black and O’Neill become more interesting as the story unravels. Each brings emotional reserves the actresses lack, so O’Neill transforms his beefcake facade into something tragic, and the multitalented Black (who produced and also designed a perfect, inhumanly white set) and his point-blank delivery inject comedy into “Profit” when its deficits are rising.

*

“Profit,” Eclectic Company Theatre, 5312 Laurel Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 13. $15. (323) 769-5201. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.