Two Theories of ‘Relativity’ Clash in Play’s Production

Nice guy Neil (James Henriksen) is hoping for a peaceful night. Yet before he can settle down in his kitschy, green-on-green, neatly middle-class living room to view a pornographic video, his harried sister, Audrey (Melinda Peterson), barges in. She claims she doesn’t know why she’s there, but then she blurts out that she’s engaged. The newlyweds want to buy their own house, so Audrey wants to sell hers. But their real estate agent mother, the co-signer on her current house, won’t sign the papers.

This is only the starting point of the linguistic and emotional maze of Mark Stein’s comedy, “Relativity,” produced by Birdman Productions in association with Third Stage. Despite a competent cast, the play struggles and strains as the characters keep shifting their stories. The psychological elements quickly sink under Stein’s heavy-handed approach and director Patricia Lee Willson’s leanings toward a cartoonish interpretation.

Neil and Audrey’s mother Vera (Seemah Wilder) arrives on this snowy night. Audrey panics and decides to hide upstairs, although Neil notes that her car is plainly parked in front of the house. After swearing Neil to secrecy, she decides to confront her mother--awkwardly exposing Neil as a liar. The rambling argument that ensues finds Audrey stressed and Vera serenely playing the martyr as they attempt to decide what the real topic of this discussion is. The house? Maternal manipulation? Accepting responsibility? Who’s at fault?

Listening to Vera and Audrey “fit the facts to suit their needs” is amusing, but these sly mental manipulations are undermined as Neil is thrown into sitcom mode. Finally crying out in frustration, he’s almost ready to throw around some chinaware.

There’s more to come. Neil’s calm, collected wife, Susan (Jezlin Royer Harris), is having an affair--but not with the man whom Neil suspects. Kirby (Martin Clark), the uncle Audrey and Neil thought was dead, suddenly appears--looking into the window at the end of the first act. He soon disappears upstairs to have a noisy sexual romp offstage with his cousin, Vera, who is or is not dying of cancer.

Henriksen is sympathetic as the put-upon man in the middle. Peterson and Wilder show different facets of controlling behaviors. Harris’ Susan coyly transforms from Neil’s foundation of normality into a near replica of his mother.

The clever verbal twists and turns that subtly change like an Escher drawing aren’t well-served by the broad comedic strokes painted by Willson or the parallel endings of the first act and the second act. The last image is cute, but not a worthwhile resolution.

*

“Relativity,” Third Stage, 2811 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends March 3. $15. (818) 842-4755. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.