A fertility clinic snafu wreaks hilarious havoc on the lives of two married couples, one Red State, one Blue State, in Rogue Machine Theatre’s Los Angeles Premiere of Eric Pfeffinger’s smart, topical, and very, very funny Human Error.

“You implanted my what in who?” are the first words out of 30something Madelyn’s (Kristen Vaganos) mouth when she and hubby Sameer (Kapil Talwalker) are informed by a stammering Dr. Hoskins (Andrew Hawtrey) that her successfully fertilized embryos “were implanted, mistakenly, in somebody who isn’t you.”

The somebody who isn’t Madelyn turns out to be Heather (Lauren Burns), married to Jim (Kiel Kennedy), and to say that no two couples could be more diametrically opposed in pretty much every respect would be an understatement.

Sameer works at “an institute for the study of comedy” where his latest paper was on “Tumbling Over the Populist Footstool: Anti-Intellectualism in The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

Jim runs a successful chain of car stereo stores, drives a truck, watches football, enjoys NASCAR, and owns multiple guns.

Madelyn, who was brought up “unchurched” or “godless” depending on whom you ask, recently quit her job as Dean of Honors at a local university to teach yoga.

 Heather, on the other hand, is a proud stay-at-home mom, whose hopes to conceive a fourth child the old-fashioned way were dashed upon being diagnosed with “secondary fertility.”

And if meeting Madelyn has Heather rather a bit out of her comfort zone, it’s probably because she and everyone else in her neighborhood are Chistian, “except the ones who are Jewish, and I mean, even them. They’re basically Christians who haven’t finished the book.”

Heather’s belief system, however distasteful it may be to a “pagan” like Madelyn, does have its plus side when she informs her visitors that not only will she be bringing their baby to term, she and Jim will be surrendering it to Heather and Sameer upon its birth.

Thus begins a nine-month odyssey during which each couple will both reaffirm and upend whatever preconceived notions they have about the other, and playwright Pfeffinger keeps us guessing about what comes next from Human Error’s undeniably provocative start to unexpectedly touching finish.

Pfeffinger’s culture-clash comedy has been making the professional and community theater rounds since its 2018 debut at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and L.A. residents can rejoice that its latest stop is at the consistently award-honored Rogue Machine.

Director Joshua Bitton takes a play that’s already a bona fide side-splitter on the printed page and makes it even funnier with some of the most inspired casting ever, kudos shared with resident casting director Victoria Hoffman.

USC grad-turned-Night Court series regular Talwalkar makes a memorable return to the stage as Sameer, a role reconceived to reflect the actor’s Indian heritage, and one that shows off not only his comedic acting skills but vocal chops as well.

Groundlings Main Company Member Kennedy proves himself as gifted at longform narrative comedy as he is at improv, General Hospital’s Vaganos is such a laugh-getting live wire as Madelyn that you’d never guess her day job is on a dramatic daytime soap, and L.A. stage-and-screen vet Hawtrey is a hoot and a half as daffy Dr. Hoskins.

Most memorabe of all, the divine Burns (also a Groundlings Main Company Member) takes a woman you or I might consign to a Donna Reed-meets-June Cleaver box and makes her the play’s warmest, wisest, and most empathetic character.

Human Error moves swiftly from scene to scene and setting to setting thanks to scenic designer James Morris’s ingenious, stylish use of the Matrix Theatre’s Cinemascope stage, and combined with Rachel Manheimer’s lighting, Christine Cover Ferro’s costumes, and Christopher Moscatiello’s sound design (all Grade A), Human Error adds up to another Rogue Machine production design winner.

Human Error is produced by Guillermo Cinefuegos. Manheimer’s lighting design is adapted from the work of R.S. Buck. Ramon Valdez is stage manager, taking over from rehearsal stage manager Rich Wong.

I may remain unconvinced that the differences that divide us in an election year can be as easily overcome as those that separate Human Error’s opposites-repel protagonists, but playwright Eric Pfeffinger’s wonder of a play will have you hoping they will. And when you get right down to it, who could ask for more in this Summer of ’24?

Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles.
www.roguemachinetheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
August 10, 2024
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Tags: Eric Pfeffinger, Los Angeles Theater Review, Rogue Machine Theatre