Review for All In The Timing

…playwright David Ives aims primarily for the brain.Ives is popular among drama students for two reasons: His plays are very funny, and they’re often very short. All in the Timing, now being performed at Studio Connections, is an evening of Ives’ one-acts. Written between 1987 and 1993, the pieces run between five and 20 minutes long.

Ives loves to play with language, and he mines veins of absurd comedy gold from the awkwardness of human communication.

In “English Made Simple,” for example, the small talk at a party is shown as an instructional film, complete with subtext translation. In “Words, Words, Words,” three chimps are charged with writing Hamlet, but keep writing Paradise Lost instead. And in “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” the Bolshevik revolutionary has an ice ax sticking out of his skull. But he needs to read his biographical sketch in the encyclopedia before he can be convinced that the ax could kill him.

The strongest playlet was the surprisingly moving “Mere Mortals,” directed by Moriah Flagler, about three construction workers (played beautifully by Brian Scott Hale, Steve Wood and John Mussack) who may be more than they seem.

Studio Connections’ daVinci Players appear to have developed this production in a sort of collaborative orgy, with each cast member playing a variety of characters, and pitching in on set construction and directing duties. The advantage of this kaleidoscopic strategy is that performers get a number of chances to show off what they can do.

For example, “The Philadelphia” is basically a one-joke skit—in this metaphysical Philadelphia, you can have anything except what you want—and actors Mussack and Dan Colecchia struggle to make it fly. Director Steve Wood tries to bump up the antics, but to little avail.

Later, though, in “Words, Words, Words,” Mussack gets a chance to display some amazing physical acting, and Colecchia turns into an endearing leading man in “English Made Simple.” Wood shows off his acting chops as a construction worker from Jersey in “Mere Mortals,” and as 50 different variations of a single character in “Sure Thing.”

The only problem with all of the variety is that I don’t have enough space to describe every enjoyable detail. I’ll simply mention that my favorite performances were by Samantha Cormier as an insecure woman trying to learn a new language; Kristina Miranda Sloan as a charismatic monkey; and Hale as (possibly) the adult Lindbergh baby.

Whether your tastes run toward pure pleasure or comic pain, you can find plenty of laughs in these two productions. But hurry: Both plays close this weekend.