The program for Landscaping in the Den of Saints by Theatre Unleashed, playing at the Avery Schreiber Theatre, does not list locations or an intermission. For your edification, there is an intermission and it takes place on the patio of a West Hollywood restaurant, the living room of a wealthy lawyer in the hills, an airport or two and various locations around Paris.

The story revolves around a wanna be writer/actor approaching middle age, his friends, or at least co-workers, his girlfriend who is taking a “vacation” to Paris and the rich man who has… well, I won’t say, that doesn’t happen until twenty minutes into the play. And the play is three hours long. It is, perhaps, the longest non-Shakespearean play I’ve ever seen besides Nicolas Nickleby and Angels in America, and, unlike those two masterpieces, this is not epic. Just long.

The play could have taken place entirely in the living room and had two, maybe three actors in it with some voice over for the girlfriend. A little exposition for Jason’s life and be on with it. That might be a very good play. Although the interaction between Jason Jones (played by the wonderful Jim Martyka) and his co-workers Bobby (Josh Green), Kaitlyn (Pamela Moore) and Jennifer (Fesa Salillas) is charming and occasionally howlingly funny, it is almost completely extraneous. Or, perhaps, belongs in a different play.

The play doesn’t really get started until Bruce (played by Sean Fitzgerald) shows up in the restaurant, which, as I mentioned, is about twenty minutes in. Did I mention it was long? I kept thinking it had finally ended and it kept going and going. I considered chewing off my arm, but realized it wasn’t actually in a trap, it just felt that way. My God, it was long.

There are two standout performances in Landscaping, Mr. Martyka as Jason and Mr. Fitzgerald as Bruce, the lawyer (although he is a little too obviously much younger than the sixty-year-old character.) Their exchange is powerful, and when it finally comes to it’s climax, because of the two actors, it was riveting.

This is yet another play about a playwright/actor who can’t write and doesn’t act, getting one final chance at a meaningful life. Jason is confused about his direction and purpose, didn’t travel with his girlfriend to Paris because of his sick cat and lies about what he has accomplished. He spends life at home or at his job with co-worker Bobby, a very crude white MC/rapper, Jennifer (who doesn’t do any work) an actress with slim talent but a great “look” and boss Kaitlyn, who is directed to be so obviously attracted to Jason right from moment one it almost gets embarrassing. After he waits on Bruce, both of their lives come crashing together, leaving them both changed. Or, at least leaving Jason changed. We’re not sure.

The set by Yelena Babinskaya was pedestrian at best, and didn’t serve the movement of the play at all. A disappointment, as the set for the last production I saw at the Avery Schreiber theatre was magnificent. (The Scarecrow.)

The director, who is also the playwright, Jacob Smith, did some very odd staging. To show that the restaurant wasn’t busy, he had Jason wiping the top of the center table over and over again. The poor schlub tried to make it organic, concentrating on one spot that must have been a helluva stain, in order to make it make some sort of sense. I know, when I worked in a restaurant and it wasn’t busy and all my duties were done, I just sat. I didn’t create busy work for myself so there would be movement on the stage.

More odd, when the girlfriend Susan (played by Liesl Jackson) showed up, either in an airport or various places in Paris, instead of just having her appear in a pool of light, Mr. Smith had her carry a chair out to sit in. If he really needed her to sit so much, he could have had her sit on one of the chairs in the restaurant set, or had one preset for her off to the side. Also, a problem with the script as much as the staging, often a character would have to stand there while other actors chatted (even if they were in a real hurry) to get out their next line. It was jarring.

Changing from the restaurant to the living room was an odd experience for the audience. The stage went black. Then they opened up the back doors of the theatre. All the actors pulled the restaurant stuff out to the patio, then pulled in a big, heavy couch, a glass table and lots of peripheral furniture. There had to be a better way of suggesting both locals with minor adjustments, even in that small space. And then, of course, after I had thought the play was over, they reversed the process and went back to the restaurant. For another half hour. We kept getting the final scene, then dark, expecting the curtain call, only to be confronted with another final scene. There were, I think four or five of them.

Costumes were by Eloise Petro, Makeup by Annie Wolf.

Landscaping the Den of Saints is performed Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. through November 22, 2009 and Sundays at 2 p.m and 7 p.m. on August 9 and 16, 2009.

The Avery Schreiber Theatre is located at 11050 Magnolia Blvd., between Vineland and Lankershim.

Ticket prices: General admission $20. On Fridays, $25 if you see both Landscape and the late show, Tales of an Unsettles City.

Reservations online at http://www.theatreunleashed.com/ or by phone at (818) 849-4039.