Two One-Acts Make Isolated Connections

The Dangerous Bunnies Theatrework presentation of “The Isolation Acts” at the Stage of Grace is an absorbing bill of two one-acts about lonely people.

In Lanford Wilson’s “Home Free,” a young woman, Joanna (Vanessa Parise), finds herself pregnant and frighteningly dependent on her mentally challenged brother, Lawrence (Randy Dare). They share a dingy apartment with two imaginary children that are more a reality to Lawrence than Joanna’s pregnancy. The impending arrival of a real baby threatens the precarious balance of this odd household until finally reality collides with fantasy.

Dare is convincing as the childish Lawrence, demanding but naively innocent in his lustful and incestuous neediness. Parise shows Joanna’s immediate frustrations well, but not the underlying strain of a long-term caretaker isolated from the world by both her responsibilities and her sexual choices. The feeling of edgy shame that pushes her to proclaim, “He’s not my brother; he’s my husband,” to others is not fully developed.

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Dare also plays a soft-spoken businessman, John, making an early morning visit to a worn-out, slatternly whore (Sandra Purpuro) in Lewis John Carlino’s “Snow Angel.”

John is trying to reenact past moments of tenderness with the prostitute, Connie, standing in for his former love. Connie is more interested in a quick, easy transaction and the booze her client has brought than forming any kind of human connection. Her attitude and educational level make her an unlikely choice to play a sophisticated art lover that John once met in a museum.

Purpuro is hilarious as the impatient, earthy whore hiding behind a smart mouth. Yet she touchingly reveals a woman fiercely protective of her poignant memories of love. Dare rumbles with controlled desperation as he tries to recapture the first moments of a love affair he has recorded in his little notebook.

Georg Hartmann directs both pieces with economy, showing a sly comedic flair in the second piece.

* “The Isolation Acts,” Stage of Grace, 1611 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Indefinitely. (213) 876-9659. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.