THEATER BEAT

The heft of “Trafficking in Broken Hearts” at Celebration Theatre owes as much to its compassion as to its grit, of which there is plenty. Edwin Sanchez’s searing 1994 three-hander about Times Square hustlers receives an arresting production, perhaps the venue’s strongest offering since “Stupid Kids.”

First produced by New York’s Atlantic Theater Company, “Trafficking” charts its fragmented course around 42nd Street in the days before Rudy Giuliani and Disney. It concerns jaded Papo (Ramon Camacho), a streetwise Puerto Rican from the Bronx, on the stroll since his teens. After virginal lawyer Brian (Stephen Twardokus) puts the tentative moves on Papo, “Trafficking” appears to be a roundelay between opportunist and closet case.

Enter pathological Bobby (Elijah Trichon), a 17-year-old runaway from institutionalization and fraternal abuse. Spurred by Sanchez’s pungent, well-observed dialogue, the triangle that evolves is graphic yet artful, often wickedly funny and finally quite moving.

In director Efrain Schunior’s adept hands, “Trafficking” uses stylized naturalism to keep dated aspects at bay, inventive without fussiness. Set designer Marika Stephens gets optimal mileage from her triad of metal frameworks, assisted by Sohail e. Najafi’s surreal lighting, Emarie Kohlmoos’ realistic wardrobe and Michael Cooper’s marvelous sound plot.

All three actors are wonderful. Camacho’s halting technique and emotional focus works like gangbusters for world-weary Papo. Twardokus inhabits repressed Brian to enervated perfection, while Trichon leavens childlike brio with an affecting stillness as Bobby. Their mutual investment drives “Trafficking in Broken Hearts.” In doing so, they cannot help but break ours.

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David C. Nichols --

“Trafficking in Broken Hearts,” Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 14. Adult audiences. $20. (323) 957-1884 or www.celebrationtheatre.com. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

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Harsh ‘Mysteries’ issues a challenge

Playwright-director David Bridel is nothing if not long-winded. Bridel’s “The Heretic Mysteries,” a Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble production in association with Powerhouse Theatre, runs a solid 3 1/2 hours.

Bear with the occasionally desultory dialogue, however, and you may well come to the conclusion that Bridel is the real thing, one of the most inventive, scholarly and vastly -- and we mean vastly -- challenging voices on the current theatrical scene.

Like last season’s “i Gelosi,” an engaging picaresque about a 16th century commedia troupe, “Mysteries” is also based in actual history. As source material, Bridel used Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie’s 1979 book “Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error,” which detailed the heretical Cathar cult in the medieval French village of Montaillou.

Set in the 1324, “Mysteries” takes us inside an Inquisitorial Council helmed by Bishop Jacques Fournier (Isaac Wade), a progressive who deplores the use of torture in such proceedings. As Fournier questions the accused, the action goes back and forth in time, as we view events from various points of view. But as Fournier tries to reconcile the differing accounts, his scrupulous rationalism is battered by superstition, ignorance, and the peasants’ righteous disgust with churchly corruption.

Bridel is fortunate in his unerringly proficient cast, which tackles Bridel’s demanding play with unfaltering commitment. But although Bridel could use a firmer hand on the reins of his subject, his spirited “Mysteries” takes us on a journey through harsh but fascinating terrain.

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F. Kathleen Foley --

“The Heretic Mysteries,” Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica. 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Ends June 6. $25. (800) 595-4849 or www.powerhousetheatre .com. Running time: 3 hours, 30 minutes.

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War of the classes is the big idea

Elephant Theatre Company opens its season of world-premiere plays with “The Idea Man,” Kevin King’s timely drama about a privileged engineer who must jettison his “obsolete” morality to hang onto his job.

The head engineer at a huge industrial tool company, Frank Thompson (Robert Foster) faces a quandary when hot-headed factory grunt Al Carson (James Pippi) drops a crudely rendered schematic in the company suggestion box -- a revolutionary idea that would save the company millions.

Intent upon stealing Al’s idea, Frank’s rapacious boss (David Franco) orders Frank to polish up Al’s design for the big bosses, who are jetting in for the occasion. But Frank is missing a piece of the puzzle and so goes “underground” into Al’s blue-collar world so that he can pick Al’s brain for more answers.

At the risk of sounding alliterative, the clash of classes is classic, but the dynamic between Frank and Al is only one strand in a complex thematic skein. The plot unravels at the end, when Al elects not to sue his company because if he did they would “crush” him. He’s already pretty macerated by then, so that rationale seems a cheap out.

Nonetheless, the sheer philosophical scope of King’s drama is breathtaking, and director David Fofi, who helmed last season’s wonderful “Anything,” works wonders despite a few weak links in his cast. Foster is an adequate Everyman but lacks an edge of passion that would make his dilemma more poignant, and Franco, while effectively rapacious, doesn’t quite convince as a top-level corporate smoothie.

But the supporting cast is marvelous, particularly Kerry Carney as Al’s blowsy wife, Francine, who keeps her straying husband in line at the point of a loaded gun.

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F. Kathleen Foley --

“The Idea Man,” Elephant Theater, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays- through Saturdays. Ends June 6. $20. (323) 960-4410 or www.plays411.com/ideaman. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

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Stress unsettles American dream

Anxiety, not the subprime lending crisis, implodes a household in “Half of Plenty,” Lisa Dillman’s darkly comic look at recession psychology now at Theatre Theater. New homeowners Marty (John Pollono) and Holly (Carolyn Palmer) find the American dream comes with unexpected asterisks -- namely, Marty’s live-in father (Robert Mandan), suffering from dementia, and proto-fascist members of the local neighborhood watch, known as APNEA (Ron Bottitta and Betsy Zajko).

Directed with impressive tonal control by Barbara Kallir, this Rogue Machine production runs on pure nerves, with Palmer particularly good as an addled bride with a wide-eyed crush on the doctor whose audio medical reports she transcribes.

Dillman knows the way people find themselves lost in their own lives, and the best moments reveal how stress distorts our ability to inhabit the present. “I bought this for you so you could be comfortable,” grimaces Marty, head-locking his father into an easy chair.

But as things go increasingly haywire on Stephanie Kerley Schwartz’s shabby living room set, even this fine cast can’t sell Dillman’s unconvincing plot turns.

The play’s use of xenophobia as a means to divide Marty and Holly feels like a cheat. Still, as an absurdist view of working America on the edge of a nervous breakdown, “Half of Plenty” is painfully, wryly accurate.

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Charlotte Stoudt --

“Half of Plenty,” Theatre Theater, 5041 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 21. $25. Contact: (323) 960-7774 or www.rogue machinetheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.