Boxed in by the weight of its story

A curious clash between form and content besets “Cubicles” at Alliance Repertory Company. Although writer-director Hal Cantor’s hard-working dramedy about isolated corporate existence boasts efficient designs and proficient actors, the course of its parable runs counter to its tragic ambitions.

After a droll projection of pre-show announcements on the screen above designer Emily Dawson’s impressively detailed title spaces, “Cubicles” begins well enough. An alarm clock buzzer awakens the early-morning monologues of four principals, all employed at the same firm: pensive middle-management ace Hugh (Carlos Martin); pregnant, unhappily married Gail (Royana Black); outre newbie Shana (Bettina Adger); and digitally challenged company man Jim (Edmund Lupinski).

They lay forth their objectives in compact prose that could benefit from trimming but is otherwise the best writing of the evening. The plot -- Jim’s worst fears arrive, free-spirited Shana strikes romantic sparks in Hugh, territorial animosity in Gail -- is beyond conventional, prone to slipshod transitions and overt exposition, for all the accurate office-speak and good intentions.

Certainly, Lupinski digs deep as a man smiling through the end of his tether, and Martin’s slow-burning gravity makes an apt contrast. Black acquits her melodramatics nobly, and Adger is nothing if not buoyant. Yet neither they nor Bibi Tinsley as yoga consultant Jean, nor Robert Gallo as mailroom clerk Stevie (a role assumed by George M. Stevens starting this weekend), can promote “Cubicles” beyond the status of promising but unwieldy effort.

“Cubicles,” Alliance Repertory Company, 3204 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. No performances May 25-27. Ends June 10. $20. (800) 595-4849. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.