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I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for love stories where two wounded souls are able to
find salvation in each others arms. No wonder I fell for Laura Richardson’s Do
Do Love, now at the Open Fist Theatre.
Diana (producer Daryl Dickerson) scarcely leaves her apartment, making
pocket money baking cutely designed cupcakes (some looking like doggie do
do--hence the title?). She listens to erotic books on CD which her sister checks
out for her from the library, and finds masochistic pleasure in cutting herself
with a razor. (But it’s a comedy, I swear!) Her mother is dying of alcoholism,
and Diana refuses to see her for reasons that become clear to us.
In an effort to frustrate Diana out of the apartment (rather than undertaking
a costly eviction), her Dutch landlord gets scruffy repairman Leif (Rhett Rossi) to
make her life miserable with a two-week intrusion to fix a problematic
bathroom. (Yes he really does stay that long.) Like Diana, Leif is tormented by
a wrong he feels he has committed, an emotional roadblock in his life. Added
to the mix is Diana’s overbearing but loving sister Francie (Samatha Bennett),
who’s come to crash at Diana’s place after leaving her husband.
Richardson’s 70 minute one-act recalls Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny
in the Claire de Lune. She skillfully blends quirky humor with moments of real
poignancy, abetted by Mimi Savage’s excellent direction.
The production benefits greatly from outstanding work by Dickerson, Rossi, and
Bennett. These are dynamic and committed actors doing three-dimensional
work. Rossi also gets to don a long wig as Journey’s Steve Perry, in several very
funny dream sequences. Andrew Schlessinger has good moments in the less
demanding role of the landlord, though his accent seems more German than
Dutch.
Performed on a modified set of the concurrently running The Idiot Box
(excellent work by Donna Marquet), the design elements are first rate (J. Kent
Inasy on lighting and Jake Eberle on sound).
I laughed a lot, I grew to care about the characters, and the ending made
me cry, a sure sign that Do Do Love had won me over with its humor and its
heart.
Open Fist, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays,
11 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, through Aug. 21; (323) 882-6912.
--Steven Stanley
August 18, 2007
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