The Thing’s a Play?

Returning from intermission at Alternative Repertory Theatre in Santa Ana, a woman explained to her escort, “No, she was the first girl onstage, with the guitar.” The escort asked, “Then that was her mother in the high school scene?”

He was trying desperately to make Carolyn Carpenter’s “Six Random Women and the Voice of a Man” into a play, with characters that developed over the evening. It never happens. He was swimming upstream, against the current.

Carpenter’s work is not a play. It’s a collection of notes for something Carpenter might write in the future. Some of it is mini-monologues. There are a couple of tiny scenes. The second act, at a beauty pageant, hints of a plot but turns out to be little more than some sham beauties philosophizing beyond their powers about the stupidity of such contests.

The title is misleading. The six random women are the six actresses who perform this material. They are excellent, under Patricia L. Terry’s knowledgeable direction, which tries to make the material more potent than it is.

The characters they play are random, all 30 of them. The writing is also random.

From the opening monologue, a feisty young country singer gets an unwanted call from her upper crust New England mother, through another monologue about a video dating service--Carpenter’s script is television writing, not stage. There is no sense of character with any depth, and no feeling of anything very important being said. One looks forward to the commercial.

Valiant Efforts by the Actresses

The actresses, Sondra Barey, Laurie T. Freed, Heather Kjos, Tracy Merrifield, Terra Shelman and Gay Storm, try with valiant hearts and all their considerable skill to breathe life into Carpenter’s writing, but Carpenter doesn’t give them much help.

For future reference, one sketch might be expanded into an effective full-length play. It concerns a fight between two high school girls and the reason it happened. Teenage angst is given a different twist, and the coldblooded relationship between one of the girls and her mother could be built into something worthy of an evening of theater. At this point it’s just another dull moment in a dull evening.

“Six Random Women and the Voice of a Man,” Alternative Repertory Theatre, 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5 p.m. Ends Dec. 11. $22-$25. (714) 836-7929. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Sondra Barey, Laurie T. Freed, Heather Kjos, Tracy Merrifield, Terra Shelman, Gay Storm

An Alternative Repertory Theatre production of Carolyn Carpenter’s play. Produced by Gary Christensen. Directed by Patricia L. Terry. Scenic/costume design: Sean McMullen. Lighting design: Gary Christensen. Sound design: Craig Michael Brown. Stage manager: Michelle Petersen.