by Geoff Hoff

The eight plays (actually seven the day I saw it) that make up the production called Misconceptions currently playing at Lonny Chapman’s Group Repertory Theatre are loosely connected sketches tied together by the notion that people have misconceptions about others and about themselves.  The author, Art Shulman, called on the poster “the Neil Simon of the San Fernando Valley”, drives the point home by having characters in several of the plays say, “They are under the  misconception that …” (fill in the blank with the idea for each play.)

The first four plays take place in a park, the last three in a coffee house.  The plays themselves are mostly about human goodness, except the two that are mostly about human arrogance and depravity.  They are (perhaps necessarily) a bit uneven in production, acting and writing.

The first play is Beggars wherein Jane (Cynthia Bryant), a Salvation Army-like woman taking collections for her charity is confronted by Emmanuel (Bob McCollum), a dirty bum begging for money who is not quite what he seems to be.  It is, perhaps, the weakest play presented, except for Mr. McCollum’s performance, which had strength, dignity and irony in it.

The second, The Hole, finds Alice (Diane Frank) painting a picture of the park while relating an afternoon with her grandniece that didn’t end the way she expected it to.  The ending was not much of a surprise, but was affecting.

In Measuring, a man named John (Robert Minsky) measures a park bench to fulfill the dying wish of his father, a bum, while Thomas (Larry Margo), another bum, sleeps on the bench.  It has funny moments, but has huge leaps of internal logic.  I understand that short plays, and short farce in particular, should probably not be held to such standards, but I can’t help myself.  I would go into some of the leaps of logic, but that would necessarily ruin some of the surprises in the play for any future audience.

The final play in the first half, Pigeons, is a very dark comedy about a woman who feeds the pigeons, (Nancy Van Iderstine), a man she met in the park a few days earlier (Patrick Burke) and a detective (Fox Carney) who has come to investigate why all the pigeons in town have died from slow release poison.  The music that introduces this piece is, appropriately, Tom Lehrer’s Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.  At one point the woman, after describing one pigeon who can count all the way up to one, says “Pigeons are smart, not brilliant.”  This could describe the play as well as the bird.

The best two plays in the collection, Toys and Waitress are both in the second half.  In Toys, an industrialist who makes toys (Morry Schorr) and a teacher about to retire (Diane Frank, who also played the painter in The Hole) spar intelligently, wittily and personably about commerce, children and responsibility over coffee and a bagel.  Both actors are fine and, except for one joke about a Woody Woodpecker mask that stretched credulity a bit, it is very well written.

It is wonderful to see two intelligent people meet for the first time and have a conversation worthy of adults.  Even when that conversation is about children and toys.  Perhaps especially when that conversation is about children and toys.  Both characters listen to each other, both have something to say and say it well.  Both affect and change each other’s lives.  Much can be achieved in a small theatre piece, and much was achieved here by the writer, director and actors in Toys.

Waitress again finds actress Nancy Van Iderstine, this time playing Brenda, a waitress, talking about her former life as a child actress and how it relates to her life now, opening the coffee shop for the millionth morning.  Partly because of the script, but mostly because of Ms. Van Iderstine’s affecting, understated, heartfelt performance, the small piece is charming, funny, devastating and ultimately life affirming.

The final play, Discussion After The Play Reading is unfortunate as it is entirely self-indulgent, overblown and illogical.  The Moderator (Laurie Morgan) gamely tries to get a discussion going about the play, written by The Playwright (Fox Carney) that had been presented as a reading the night before.  He is entirely unable to understand that his play is awful and goes on way too long.  The one Audience Member who shows up for the colloquy (Wynn Marlow) quite illogically turns out to be the woman who directed the staged reading and, even more illogically, has to tell the Moderator, who keeps calling for more discussion from the audience, that she is the only audience member there.  That’s just sloppy writing that is inconsistent with someone who could produce Toys.

This piece consists mostly of the writer, completely unaware of just how horribly, terribly, horrendously bad his play is, taking every criticism as high praise, which is funny for a moment but goes on and on and on.  Just like his supposed play they’re all talking about did the night before.  Why, I wonder, if the thing were that much of a steaming pile of dog doo, did anyone bother mounting a reading, and if the reading were that bad, why did anyone schedule the discussion, expecting anyone to come?

It is unfortunate that the evening did not end on Toys or Waitress.

Misconceptions was directed by Wynn Marlow, Kaz Matamura, Art Shulman and Stan Mazin.  The set was by Chris Winfield.

The play is performed Saturdays at 2 pm and Sundays at 7 pm through Sunday, March 29th, 2009.

The Lonny Chapman Group Repertory Theatre is located at 10900 Burbank Blvd., 1 block east of Vineland in North Hollywood.

Ticket prices: $15.00 ($12.00 for seniors, $10 for students with ID)

Reservations online at www.lcgrt.com or by phone at (818) 700-4878