With a sophisticated humor, David Mamet captures a slightly older audience with his “Two Unrelated Plays,” a fitting title for the two one-act plays showing at the Kirk Douglas Theatre until June 8.
The show opens with Mamet’s 1971 work, “The Duck Variations,” portraying the conversations of two aged men, Emil Varec (Harold Gould) and George S. Aronovitz (Michael Lerner), on a park bench.
The relationship resembles that of Vladimir and Estragon in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,” in that the friends are isolated from society, with no apparent purpose than to finish each other’s sentences and thoughts.
The play has an existential tone, because the characters discuss death, nature and the meaningless struggle of life. They discuss the simplicity of a duck’s life, indirectly paralleling and contrasting it to that of a human.
The set design is modest, consisting of a rusty park bench adjacent to an old trash can, which drew more attention to the comedic conversational dynamics of the two characters. The conversation was fluent; each statement was timely and kept the play moving, which showed impressive direction by Neil Pepe.
Complaining about their lives, one character said he doesn’t like visiting the park because when at the park, he can only return home, whereas when at home, he always has the park to which he can escape.
While unrelated in plot, both plays are male-dominated. Mamet’s world premiere production “Keep Your Pantheon” was set in ancient Rome and traces the drama facing Strabo (Ed O’Neill), an actor who is in debt and trying to book a performance at the Sicilian Cork Festival. Incidentally, on their way to an audition, Strabo and his acting crew end up at the wrong location and their borderline offensive skit leads them to face potential decapitation.
O’Neill does a decent job portraying his cynical character as he saunters around in his red-orange long-sleeved tunic and brown strappy sandals. Laced among the witty conversations are a plethora of sexual innuendos, keeping the audience laughing.
Pelargon (David Paymer) effectively plays Strabo’s companion, drawing laughs through his controversial comments which he delivers in a monotone voice and unchanging facial expression.
The youngest character, Philius (Michael Cassidy), an aspiring actor whose obliviousness and ignorance hinders him from achieving his dreams, portrays a lighter comedy. His only quality is his good looks. When told he would be beheaded, he innocently responds, “But that would mean we would die.” Despite the humor in Cassidy’s performance, this one youthful character wasn’t enough to keep the younger crowd engaged.
The costumes were accurate in both plays; Varec and Aronovitz were suited in earth-toned button-down sweater-vests, while the men in “Keep Your Pantheon” wore colorful embroidered tunics with gold stringy sandals.
Mamet and Pepe effectively juxtaposed two unrelated plays; both cater to a more experienced crowd and are not exactly fit for a college date night.
““ Alene Tchekmedyian
E-mail Tchekmedyian at atchekmedyian@media.ucla.edu.