Friends in Transient Places

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman

Studio Stage Theatre

Through October 30

In The Recommendation, playwright Jon Caren offered a searing take on class and privilege. In The Need to Know he examined how the behavior of an unconventional person might trigger suspicion and paranoia in others.

Friends in Transient Places, his latest and comparatively more whimsical work, focuses less on a single theme and instead depicts a series of encounters between air travelers at an airport and on a plane. The script reveals Caren to be sensitive to the subtleties in human behavior, but the production, under Katherine Vondy’s direction, is uneven. The performances fluctuate in quality, so that some of the sequences play well while others never come to life. And there are a few in the middle.

One of the most engaging stories follows the relationship between Dahlia (Heather Boothby) and Mitch (Michael Turner), two single people seated next to each other on the plane. Initially attracted, they are nonetheless repeatedly sabotaged by their own insecurities and by a series of misunderstandings. We’re made privy to their inner thoughts as they repeatedly attempt to communicate, both investing emotionally in the situation as if it were long-term rather than casual. The setup has been used in sketch comedy and the like, but here the performers’ deft interplay takes the riff to a higher level.

A second successful scene takes place between Jason (Bradley Gosnell) and Ismael (Jason Karasev), former acquaintances at a youth camp in Israel where Ismael had been scapegoated and Jason had been one of his tormentors. While Jason barely remembers these events, it’s clear that Ismael — who now calls himself Ian and brags of a “hot girlfriend” — will never forget them. Later, Jason meets up with his Dad (Barry Vigon). In one of the production’s most genuine sequences, father and son, long at odds, struggle to reach some sort of détente, to express the love that’s buried beneath a mound of resentments.

The show is launched with the music of live percussionist Quentin Jones — a peppy point of departure that needs calibrating, as the volume of the drums overtakes the performers’ voices in the opening scene.

Studio Stage Theatre, 520 N. Western Ave., L.A.; Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through Oct. 30. https://fitp.brownpapertickets.com. Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.