Nine Winning One-Acts

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
Group Rep/Lonny Chapman Theatre
Through August 7

This hefty bill of one-acts was culled from submissions by writers from all across the country. Some of the pieces really shine, while others produce only a faint glimmer. Dan Borengrasser’s The Third Person, directed by John Williams Young, is of the latter stripe. It’s a stylized homage to film noir in which a woman (Alyson York) meets a mysterious man (Young) who tells her about her innermost secrets. It’s got atmosphere, but it’s otherwise quite toothless.

In a similar vein is James Ferguson’s Alexander the Great, with Kevin Logie in a terribly ham-fisted performance as the great conqueror, put-upon and disrespected by a trio of peasant women. I Knew It!, by Scott C. Sickles, is a solid display of clever effective writing. Stephanie Colet and Alana Kerr Collins are at odds over the men in their lives, and are caught up in a cyclone of jealousy, anger and infidelity. The payoff is dialogue packed with colorful and bitchy verbal sparring, some unexpected turns and a kicker of an ending.   Fine performances complement Bruce Nehlsen’s direction.

Good for needed laughs is Marjorie Bicknell’s Dora’s Dynamic Dates. Directed by Stan Mazin, it’s a raucous parody of speed dating with Patrick Burke and Roz Cohn on the hunt for true love under very difficult circumstances.

Best all-around pieces on the bill include A Long Time Coming; written by Jody McColman and directed with splendid nuance by Richard Alan Woody, it’s an evocative, painful mediation on friendship and loss, performed by Pascale Gigon and Lauren Peterson.  A second notable piece, Hospice: A Love Story, by Elizabeth Coplan, tells of two sisters (Michelle Bernath, Lareen Faye), haunted by guilt, who attempt to come to terms with their decision to “speed up” their terminally ill mother’s departure.

Group Rep/Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood; Sat. 2 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Aug. 7; (818) 763-5990 or www.thegrouprep.com Running time: one  hour and 45 minutes with an intermission.