Defining Northern Ireland’s troubles

Illuminating the societal morass of present-day Northern Ireland from the insightful perspective of a native son, Gary Mitchell’s “The Force of Change” is a grim testament to intractable divisions and blind allegiances that defy rational solution.

It’s also a first-rate crime drama a la “Homicide” or “Prime Suspect,” set in a Belfast police station where the distinction between good guys and villains becomes increasingly blurred in the course of two interrelated interrogations.

One team of detectives -- fast-track careerist Caroline (Peggy Goss) and her resentful older subordinate Bill (Barry Lynch) -- is racing against the clock to get information from a Protestant paramilitary thug (Rick Crawford) before they have to release him. Next door, a more seasoned pair of cops (John Montana, Kevin Kearns) chaff at grilling a petty thief (Brandan Halpin) when they believe they could do a better job than Caroline with the more important suspect.

In the clash of egos and motives pitting cop against cop, complex performances ensure it’s not easy to take sides. Goss gives Caroline enough haughtiness and occasional lapses in professionalism to justify resentments of her colleagues, while Montana’s would-be peacemaker becomes mired in moral compromise.

Looming over the interrogations is a police force undergoing change -- the Ulster constabulary transforming from its traditional role as protector of the Protestant population against Catholic insurgents to a pro-unification outfit that must adapt its old-boy network to accommodate not only Catholics but ambitious women such as Caroline.

John Swanbeck’s focused staging guides us through the dizzying maze of Northern Irish politics with impressive clarity. Though Mitchell’s characters remain too constrained by the issues they embody to truly stand on their own, polemics never overwhelm their compelling personal struggles.

-- Philip Brandes

“The Force of Change,” McCadden Place Theatre, 1157 McCadden Place, Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (dark April 16). Ends May 7. $15-$20. (818) 780-0661. Running time: 2 hours.

‘Faithful’ to a film noir sensibility

Marty Sader and Laura Keys’ direction of Chazz Palminteri’s “Faithful,” now at Playhouse West’s Studio 3, is not so much a staging as it is an experiment, with Sader and Keys the playfully mad scientists out to push the envelope of theatrical interpretation.

Palminteri’s off-Broadway play, which was later made into a movie, concerns a hit man who has been hired to kill a woman on her 20th anniversary. But has the hit man been hired by the woman’s philandering husband or by the woman herself, a wannabe suicide who doesn’t have the guts to do it?

In the Playhouse West production, the play has been neatly transformed into a film noir movie melodrama, complete with rolling film credits projected on a scrim that flanks the front of the stage. That same scrim, combined with Eva Lohse’s special makeup, Keys’ carefully monochromatic scenery and Sader’s murky lighting, makes everything on the stage look black and white -- a striking evocation of vintage noir, right down to the horizontal shadows cast by the window blinds.

In the first act, we meet Maggie (Kathleen Lambert), the sexy captive whose tense but torrid interchange with her hired killer, Tony (Matt Stasi), takes the plot veering into the unexpected. The second act introduces us to Jack (Matt Bell), Maggie’s sleazy hubby, a womanizing schemer who has been made murderously angry by Maggie’s single infidelity.

Unabashedly histrionic, these actors chew the scenery like human wood chippers, going with over-the-top breakneck abandon. In fact, Lambert, with her peek-a-boo hair and hyper-sultry manner, is vaguely reminiscent of the beaky siren in the cartoon where Daffy Duck plays a Philip Marlowe-esque detective. (“Where’s the body?” “I’m the body!”) But if you look at an old James Cain movie, you’ll realize that these dead-on, pre-Method portrayals wittily echo their steamy antecedents. And although this genuinely oddball production bears little resemblance to Palminteri’s original, it’s a lot of fun and impressively stylish to boot.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Faithful,” Playhouse West Studio 3, 10634 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. April 7, 21, 22 and 28. Ends April 28. Donation. (818) 509-0865. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Are all them rednecks for real?

Allison Moore’s “Hazard County,” now at the Ark Theatre, is set in the wilds of Eastern Kentucky’s Hazard County, where outsider Blake (Michael Agrusso), a fledgling TV producer, has ventured in search of gripping news stories. Blake hits the jackpot when he meets Ruth (Tracy Eliott), the single mother of fraternal twins (Chairman Barnes) and JoBeth Prince).

Blake learns Ruth’s husband was murdered some years back by a black youth visiting the area. Moved by Ruth’s valiant struggle in the aftermath of the crime as well as her refusal to demonize the young man who killed her husband, Blake falls hard for Ruth and sets out to make her life story a ratings event. But as subsequent revelations confirm, neither Ruth nor Blake are as straightforward as they initially appear.

Moore employs the clever construct of interrupting her play’s main story line with unrelated monologues about the TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard,” delivered by fanatical fans of the show, all played to a tee by the versatile Prince and Barnes. It’s a neat device that facilitates a thorough examination of redneck good ol’ boy stereotypes and the fascination and fear that they inspire.

Moore’s thoughtfully rendered rural characters neatly counterbalance those condescending TV caricatures. In that same vein, director Richard Tatum and his engaging cast never truckle to the play’s broadly regional rhythms. Prince and Barnes may get a little gooey playing hyperactive 8-year-olds, but for the most part the tone is effectively naturalistic. Even a humorous character such as Camille (Mary Pringle), Ruth’s man-hungry good ol’ gal friend, is downplayed and believable.

Unfortunately, in the play’s final scenes, Moore goes off-road into abstruse plot permutations and trumped-up motivations, leaving her initially speedy vehicle stranded in the sticks.

-- F.K.F.

“Hazard County,” Ark Theatre, 1647 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends April 30. $20. (323) 969-1707. www.arktheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours.

Good intentions fill ‘Playground’

Homelessness is bad. Teenage runaways have a rough row to hoe.

That’s pretty much the gist of “The Playground,” a rock drama at Deaf West Theatre dealing with the plight of young runaways and their struggle to survive on the mean streets. Supposedly, this play with music was “inspired by true events.” As is proudly stated in the press notes, the production team spent “a full 24 hours” on the streets without food or money to research this project.

Possibly some of the meandering monologues in the play derived from interviews with actual street kids. Whatever the case, creator and writer Michael Justen, who also directs, elicits a bounty of untrammeled sentiment from his ardent cast, which plunges into this sprawling and ambitious enterprise with hyper-histrionic fervor.

The production company, An 11:11 Experiment, is credited with the strikingly gritty set, which envelops the audience in an explosion of graffiti. Live music and periodic rock numbers punctuate the proceedings. Beth Hart, Gunner Wright and Sebastian Sage contributed the music and lyrics, with additional material by Ryan Ballinger, Michelle Kaufer and Ian Kitz.

This may well be a case of too many cooks. It’s certainly a case of too many story lines. Despite the evident good intentions of all involved, this reiterative and overlong retread has little new to say about its subject. The characters, a familiar assemblage of stereotypical street types, are, with few exceptions, generically pitiable, their melodramatic fates wholly predictable.

Justen et al. mean us to feel the kids’ pain, acutely. Unfortunately, this wallow in atmospheric squalor, complete with swirling, psychedelically lighted drug sequences, seems more campy than perceptive. That many of the performers are simply too long in the tooth to convincingly portray teenage characters doesn’t help. That’s a shame, because the play is simply aching with good intentions. However, Justen and his earnest collaborators would have better served their subject by inserting a splinter of ice into their prolifically bleeding hearts.

-- F.K.F.

“The Playground,” Deaf West Theatre, 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Ends May 6. $20 and $25. (800) 595-4849, www.tix.com Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Let heart prevail over the head

Ah, budding relationships -- so vital to the proliferation of the species and therapists’ bank accounts, not to mention that narrative staple, the romantic comedy. While Jessica Lind’s “String” adds little originality to the genre, its charms overcome limited production resources in an amiable staging from Lucid by Proxy.

Lind’s heroine, a smart 27-year-old poet named Raina (Shannon Jarrell), claims she was born for one reason: to fall in love. Yet love has always eluded her, mainly because the mundane world never quite lives up to romantic ideals shaped by her favorite poets “who can squeeze beauty out of anything.”

Not that the attractive Raina is short on suitors. The leading candidate for her affections is a handsome, erudite Medieval lit scholar named Derek (David Nett, who co-directs with Patty Ramsey). They have similar interests and get along well -- a seemingly good match.

Then there’s the pizza delivery guy named Ryan (Chuck Rancci), who shows up on Raina’s doorstep with car trouble. No, it’s not that kind of story -- Ryan is no studly boy toy, he’s a cheerful if socially maladroit guy with an IQ a few ticks north of Forrest Gump. But he takes a shine to Raina and tries to woo her despite her immediate -- and persistent -- dismissal.

Naturally, it takes a while for Raina to see past surface trappings to the true heart being offered her. Ryan has better luck ingratiating himself with Raina’s less ambitiously idealistic sister, Joy (Shannon Nelson), and her unglamorous but well-meaning husband, Cliff (Richard Wylie).

Armed with a few sharp lines of dialogue, Lind’s script follows a predictable path to an affirmation of simple heart over sophisticated head. Unfortunately, it cuts corners along the way -- an early scene that ends with everyone else leaving a strange delivery man alone in Raina’s apartment is just plain sloppy.

Engaging chemistry between Jarrell and Rancci sustains interest, but when their characters’ fairy tale ends in the place where Joy and Cliff’s marriage began, you have to wonder whose story would make the more interesting play.

-- P.B.

“String,” Paul E. Richards Theater Place, 2902 Rowena Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends April 30. $15. (800) 836-3006 or www.lucidbyproxy.com. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.