A Look at the Ups and Downs in a Golfer’s Life

Given that disappointment is a theme at the heart of American storytelling, it’s mystifying that there are no great American plays about golf--a sport of inevitable setbacks.

Writer-actor Morton Lewis’ “In Search of the Perfect Swing,” at Two Roads Theatre, is not that play. But it uses golf as a vital metaphor for life’s bittersweet disappointments.

Lewis’ modest but theatrical play starkly contrasts with another one-man sports show at Two Roads, which was reviewed recently, “Vince.”

That portrait of Vince Lombardi is about victory and how the coach believed it was achieved. “Perfect Swing” is about winning and then losing, about the rise and fall of fame. In “Vince” we have the brute force of football; in “Perfect Swing,” the fragile witchcraft of golf.

Still, it isn’t clear for quite a while where exactly Lewis’ play is heading. Like pro golfer Jack Wagner’s life, the course of the story is messy, full of fits and starts. Marriages go bust, tournaments go OK--all part of the blowzy week-in, week-out of a traveling PGA pro.

We hear echoes of Ron Shelton’s film “Tin Cup” here, but Lewis crucially rejects the happy comeback ending. Here, we follow Jack’s endlessly frustrating struggle just to keep qualified, even as his libido gets him into trouble. He’s confused about his consistently disastrous private life, because he thought that love happened “in the middle” of life, after first passion, before senility.

The fascinating thing about Jack is that he’s sharply observant about love and other things--and has a great knack for imagery--but he can’t follow through from thought to deed. It’s as if he knows what the perfect golf swing looks like, even understands the physiology behind it, but can’t do it.

What a refreshing difference, too, from the monolithically confident Lombardi. When Jack sighs with relief after giving up the game (“No more practice!”), the scene is beautifully human. Lombardi would say that Jack was a loser, and should get back out on the course. Lewis’ play suggests to us why that would be missing the point.

Lewis’ acting isn’t as interesting as his writing, which takes a narrative curve in Act 2 into Coen Brothers territory that nearly works. He has the gangly, goofy spirit of a Ray Bolger, but not quite the steely professionalism of, say, a Fred Couples, especially when Jack becomes a PGA star.

His performance is more comfortable in the tough times off the course than on, though Lewis--who seems to understand the demons that nip at any golfer’s mind--does display a strong, smooth swing on stage. It’s the one thing director Larry Gelman couldn’t have staged, and one of many things Lewis doesn’t cheat us on.

DETAILS

* WHAT: “In Search of the Perfect Swing.”

* WHERE: Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City.

* WHEN: 7 p.m. Sundays. Runs indefinitely.

* HOW MUCH: $15.

* CALL: (818) 766-9381.