An Acidic Look at Relationships

Michael T. Folie’s short, tart comedy “Lemonade,” a Snaggletooth production at the Tamarind Theatre, takes a 1950s mentality about men and women and translates it into a present-day dilemma. Two men find themselves in love with the other’s main squeeze, and various social and moral contortions ensue. The men are buffoons and the women are ultimately in control.

Out of touch for several years, vitamin distributor Jim (Hugh O’Gorman) reconnects with his old college buddy, Carl (Maxwell Caulfield), a successful public relations executive. Their girl-watching habits--setting prices on how much they’d pay to sleep with passing women--establishes them as male chauvinists in contemporary clothing. Carl and his wife, Jane (Laura Rogers), have just had a child, and he promises to match the still-single Jim with one of his wife’s friends.

A few days later, when Jim first meets Jane, he thinks he’s met a thousand-dollar babe. Jane and Carl introduce Jim to Betsy (Heather Tom), who just happens to be Carl’s mistress. Through the convenience of modern-day parenting electronics, Jim learns about Carl and Betsy’s relationship. But this doesn’t deter Jim from getting together with Betsy or sleeping with her as they join forces to break up Carl and Jane’s already shaky marriage.

Folie uses lemonade as a metaphor for marriage. As Jane explains to Betsy, marriage is “refreshing, but it’s naturally bitter. You have to add the sugar of romance yourself.” Folie also makes witty commentary about men flirting with Asian martial arts and philosophy, allowing for a silly slo-mo fight sequence. In a parallel sequence, the women have a rather tame cat-fight.

Director Sean Alquist keeps the pace snappy, providing little time to think about the seedier elements of Folie’s thesis in this war of the sexes.

Most of the laughs come from O’Gorman and Caulfield, who play their roles with hilarious zest. Caulfield preens and poses as the conceited, self-centered Carl. O’Gorman’s Jim is more the innocent, a sensitive guy who is confused by his own indecision and is seduced by Carl’s sales pitch about a new age of openness and sharing and the possibility of a “nookie network.”

Tom and Rogers have less to work with; their parts are sorely underwritten. They end up playing the straight-women to the showier male roles. Folie attempts to correct this deficiency by sweetening the women’s position in the end. It’s an old trick that, in this case, benefits from the brevity of the piece.

Folie’s comedy is a funny but ultimately sour look at the problem of monogamy and the allure of the forbidden fruit.

*

“Lemonade,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Sundays, 7 p.m. $20-$15. Ends Sept. 16. (323) 655-8587. Running time:1 hour, 20 minutes.