‘Train’ Links Up With Absurdities

Laden with a groaning freight of unmotivated wackiness, Bill Barker’s “Life Is Like a Train” strains valiantly for laughs in its premiere, staged by singular productions at the Ivy Substation. Unfortunately, despite Jessica Kubzansky’s incisive direction and a few entertaining whistle stops en route, this Little Engine That Couldn’t takes us on a circuitous journey in which humor remains a distant destination.

The action revolves around the troubled Jerry (Todd Merrill), a successful attorney who has suddenly collapsed in a midlife crisis. Lisa (Rebecca Marcotte), Jerry’s upwardly directed wife, can’t relate to Jerry’s emotional derailment; Cal (Barker), Jerry’s gay brother, sees Jerry’s despair as a bankable commodity; Jerry’s womanizing bachelor pal Dan (Michael David Edwards) blames much of Jerry’s problem on monogamy, while the resilient Carlton (Lisa Anne Morrison) jockeys to hook Dan. Even Jerry’s best-selling feel-good book, “Life Is Like a Train,” cannot jolt Jerry out of his torpor. That takes Eve (Robyn Merrill), a fan with a grim secret.

Cartoonish characters and a zany plot lend an absurdist panache to the play, but the attenuated plot and constant chronological shifts are unnecessary and confusing. More baffling, though, is the exact nature of Jerry’s midlife crisis, upon which the entire plot ultimately hinges. With no apparent rationale behind his bitterness, Jerry seems little more than a self-pitying kvetch, whose petty crisis results in an unmomentous chain of events.

* “Life Is Like a Train,” Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 30. $18. (310) 558-1555. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.