‘Nothing’ an Inventive Look at Search for Love

Narcissistic plays about modern single life and the struggle for love are often cheap to produce and serve as a pilot program for writing and stand-up skills. But the genre has worn thin.

That said, there’s always the chance a minimalist love story will be so artfully staged, the material looks fresh. Two bountiful examples, both three-character plays, are “Nothing So Simple as Love” at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood and a “Key Exchange” revival at the Whitefire Theater in Sherman Oaks.

“Nothing So Simple as Love,” directed by Mary Lou Belli, is a series of comic, sometimes poignant, interwoven monologues about life in the city and the search for love. Actors Anne Leyden, Michael Monks and Steven Culp never interrelate but they may as well be talking about each other. It’s a wonderfully ambiguous point.

A collaborative writing effort by Wil Calhoun, Gordon R. McKee and Nancylee Myatt, the script nicely develops character and subtly draws the three stories into a bittersweet mosaic. One scene, Monks’ portrayal of a guy going to a clinic to get the results of an HIV test, is a gem.

* “Nothing So Simple as Love,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood . Sundays, 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Ends Oct. 11. $15. (818) 787-6171. Running time: 1 hour.

‘Streams’: Sketches With Some Good Lines

Urban anxiety, scattered over a wider landscape, is also dramatized in “Streams of Consciousness” at the Met Theatre.

Written and directed by Michael T. Weiss, the show spotlights eight solo characters talking to a person we can’t see, about such subjects as video dating, thinness as a state of happiness and a wife’s yearning to be glamorous.

In its present form, “Streams” is a collection of loosely intertwined sketches looking for a structure--a regular play wouldn’t be bad--in order to hit home as something more than a stack of auditions.

But Weiss writes good lines--even, sometimes, in those frequent moments when he’s engaged in the dubious artifice of rhymed couplets.

Among the “streams” that brightly burble are Eddie DeHarp’s stinging rendition of a dedicated actor brushed off at an audition, Stacey Katzin’s depiction of a character desperate to lose weight and Lee Mathis’ philosophical construction worker high on a roof beam pondering metaphysics. Narrow pools of light moodily enhance the performances.

* “Streams of Consciousness,” Met Theatre, 1098 N. Oxford Ave., Los Angeles. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 10. $5-$7:50. (660) 8587. Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.

‘Nevertheless’ a Foolish but Good Time

You want to have a foolish but good time? Check out Murphy Dunne at the Globe Playhouse.

“What the world doesn’t need is another one-man show,” he once said. Thus, his solo piece, “Murphy Dunne Nevertheless.”

Think of a more mellow Sid Caesar. Dunne does everything. He uncorks an uncanny impersonation of President Bush at an abortion clinic. He’s a riot as a shy guitar player who, after working his way up from small clubs to knocking out riffs at the Hollywood Bowl, turns into a coke-snorting jerk. He does Italians, cops, stuffy maitre d’s, a veteran actor auditioning for one miserable line.

He sings to a keyboard strapped over his shoulder. And he’s quick on his feet. When one of his parting lines was greeted with a raspberry from the audience, Dunne shot back, “Satire isn’t always pretty,” not missing a beat.

Directed by Lewis Arquette, who co-wrote with Dunne, the production is all over the place, like a one-man band at an audition for “The Tonight Show.” But it’s “nevertheless” tightly paced, with nifty multimedia effects.

* “Murphy Dunne Nevertheless,” Globe Playhouse, 1107 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 3. $15. (213) 654 - 5623. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

‘Ribbon,’ ‘Dream’ an Intriguing Pairing

At Cafe Beckett, just a Blarney Stone from seedy Hollywood and Western, you can gulp an Irish coffee and take in a young character, Fiona Duffy, as she sits on a suitcase in a Dublin train station preparing to travel to meet her IRA brother in Brighton, England.

The date on which “Tricoloured Ribbon” unfolds is Oct. 11, 1984, two days before the IRA claimed responsibility for bombing Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet at a hotel in Brighton. But Fiona doesn’t know much about politics or her brother’s IRA ties. She’s an ordinary young woman reminiscing about her home in Belfast, growing up being despised by the “Proddies.”

What a textured work! In a blink, director Aimee Patrick and writer-performer Fran Harrison sweep us into another world. An American whose recent travels in Ireland inspired the piece, Harrison fills the room with a rich but always clear Irish accent.

A companion piece, “Dream Analysis,” subtitled “a string quartett for vocal cords,” presents four dreamers, three men and a woman in formal black attire, simultaneously and maddeningly recalling dreams in musical terms.

Director Endre Hules, translating a bizarre experiment by Edoardo Sanguinetti, keeps the vocal action furious and even funny, despite the fact you can hardly make sense of anything.

The spiffy actors call themselves “The Rogues” (Land Courtney Hay, Maury Efrems, Michael Sander and Joel Diehl Stoffer). Their “Dream Analysis” will drive some patrons crazy--but here’s a show not easily duplicated elsewhere.

* “Tricoloured Ribbon” and “Dream Analysis,” Cafe Beckett, 5651 Hollywood Blvd. Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 4. $6. (213) 462-6844. Running time: 1 hour.

‘Cable Guys’--Wait for the Second Show

They work for Cucamonga Cable and they’ll wire anything. Meet blue-collar dudes Eugene and Dewey (John Moody and Jim Jackman).

Unfortunately, the brightest thing about “Cable Guys,” at the Third Stage Theatre in Burbank, is Lollie Ortiz’s clever, cartoon-like set, in ripe primary colors straight out of a crayon box. But the plot is so sophomoric the show is almost over-designed. Producer-writer Moody uses some TV clips, but these housemates might as well be plumbers or bus drivers (though Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton need not fear this duo).

Jackman is a physically expressive, animated cutup who just needs to be reined in. Director Mark Hawkins allows him to get away with shameless shtick, like a showoff at a college party.

Curiously, the post-intermission after-burner, “L.A. Declassified,” comes on with the same eight-member cast plus Joan Leizman and rips off some dandy improvs. Here’s a dessert that’s much more fun than the main entree, revealing what talented improvisers these hipsters are. But for now, a straight comedy seems out of their reach.

* “Cable Guys,” Third Stage Theater, 2811 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank . Fridays, 8 p.m. ; Saturdays, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Ends Oct. 31. $8-$10. (818) 989 - 5713. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.