Illuminating the Dark Mystery of ‘Love’

Under the deft direction of Darlene Hunter-Chaffee, Karoline Leach’s “The Mysterious Mr. Love” gets an engrossing production at the Long Beach Playhouse. Beginning as a lighthearted romantic frolic, this piece has a dark undertone that’s well integrated throughout Hunter-Chaffee’s staging.

Leach’s two characters narrate their contradicting thoughts while enacting their story and slipping in and out of conversations.

Gareth Provon is the charming and chameleonic cad, George Love, out to court and con low-esteem lasses in the London area during October 1910. Nearly penniless, fighting off hunger and dodging his landlady, he owns one high-quality suit that he wears whenever he spots his next mark.

Mr. Love is a charitable sort--he gives a loveless lady her wedding night before he skips out with her valuables. His current mark is a woman who feels too fat to be beautiful, played with great sympathy by a luminous Holly Jeanne.

This new Mrs. Love has a few tricks of her own. Provon’s mercurial transformations provide the twists and turns that cloud what may be the truth.

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* “The Mysterious Mr. Love,” Studio Theatre, Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; this Sunday and Feb. 27, 2 p.m. Ends March 4. $12-$15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours.