In ‘Big Head Women,’ Big Concepts Fall Short of Good Sci-Fi Camp

On paper, Mel DeMind’s new comedy, “Big Head Women” at the Alliance Repertory Company, is promising--especially if you like campy, bad science-fiction as I do.

But DeMind’s tale about scholars in the year 2999 watching a hologram about a historical event on New Year’s Eve 1999 offers a disjointed cast of characters in search of a better script. While some might celebrate the thought of the total extinction of men (not really a “species,” but B-movies aren’t noted for their biological accuracy), this concept, along with others, isn’t properly developed.

DeMind has many good ideas. Joel Stoffer built a wonderfully suffocating domestic set. The green-stained back walls with white-stained doors and dual brown-toned side walls are adorned with farmy kitsch everywhere--ceramic teddy bears, paintings of pigs and chickens. Jenny Wayland’s costume design is mostly on target.

A farmer, Lead (Daniel Lewk), first seen in red long-johns while clearly sexually aroused, is married to an unseen wife (voice-overs) who wants only sex or food, but can’t leave her bedroom because of her girth.

A duchess fleeing her sterile life in England (Minda Burr), a crazy survivalist (Shannon S. Presby), a former call girl dressed a bit too scantily for winter in Nebraska (Clara York), an entrepreneurial videographer (Todd Robert Anderson), a gender-questionable surfer dude (Hilary Davis) and his girlfriend (Hannah Castelluccio) are all guests at Lead’s farmhouse-turned-bed-and-breakfast. They wait for the doom and gloom of the millennium.

Andela (Candice Khristensun), who is our teacher and guide explaining the hologram, has the best costume, but her lines fall flat, mostly due to director Jeff Doucette’s draggy pace and the choppy scripting.

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* “Big Head Women,” Alliance Repertory Company, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends March 18. $15. (818) 846-5456. Running time: 2 hours.