Fragile mental states

Of all disabilities, mental illness may be the least understood and the most potentially devastating. A two-person play about an aging mother and her schizophrenic son, “Taking Care,” now in its West Coast premiere at the Little Victory, chronicles the daily challenges that schizophrenia presents both for the afflicted and the caregiver.

According to the program notes, playwright Mia McCullough was “inspired by actual events” -- perhaps why the proceedings seem so convincingly slice-of-life. Indeed, anyone who has had personal experience of schizophrenia within his or her family will find McCullough’s treatment particularly wrenching.

The action, which takes place from 1995 until 2003, transpires in a series of terse scenes, all set within the claustrophobic confines of set designer Brett A. Snodgrass’ evocatively shabby set. Although she is now in her 80s, Ma (Maria Gobetti) is still a force to be reckoned with. As sole caregiver to her schizophrenic son, Benny (Tim Sullens), Ma labors to keep their fragile domestic microcosm intact. However, when Ma breaks a hip and declines into senility, their roles are painfully reversed.

Director Carrie Sullens keeps her staging as effectively simple as the text. In a wonderfully nuanced performance, Gobetti illustrates the complicated duality of Ma, an admirable yet appalling woman whose guilty conscience is not easily expiated. Gobetti is beautifully balanced throughout by Sullens, who shows the flickering intelligence under Benny’s unlovely exterior.

This is not a perfect play. Too often we hear the wheels of conscientious research grinding under McCullough’s construct. However, despite some rote interchanges, McCullough avoids the trap of a grand overview. It is through the minutiae of these characters’ lives that we gain a sense of their cumulative pain, and a larger sense of the abiding human imperative for companionship. Linked by habit and need, Benny and Ma illustrate the power of human love, in all its imperfection.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Taking Care,” Little Victory Theatre, 3324 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 17. $24-$30. (818) 841-5422. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Bad blood between brothers

“Dad always said, ‘Words are no good unless they’re on paper.’ ” So goes “The Best Man,” presented by W Productions at the David Henry Hwang Theater. Although playwright Weiko Lin’s promising study of a hotel suite Walpurgis Night on the eve of one brother’s wedding to the other’s ex-wife benefits from its capable players, the dilemmas they face are another story.

Set in modern Manhattan, “The Best Man” juggles caustic banter and unearthed secrets that wouldn’t be out place in David Rabe’s canon.

The title character is Danny (author Lin), a failed DJ reduced to pimping out girlfriend Misty (Cathy Shim) for money. This emerges through initial exposition, as Danny presses Mitchell (Leonard Wu), his successful younger brother, to relax and enjoy his bachelor party. After all, tomorrow Mitchell marries upper-crust Julia (Lisa Faiman), whom, we soon learn, was once Mrs. Danny.

That’s one detail Danny has kept from ditzy Misty, but he’s holding out on everyone, particularly Julia, who arrives unexpectedly. As alcohol and drugs enter the mix, suppressed attractions erupt, which results in shocking admissions, melodramatic confessions and a tragic final twist.

First-time director Kevin Lau shows considerable talent at placement and pace. The designers are proficient, especially Haibo Yu’s excellent set, and the actors have noteworthy aptitude and verve.

However, the aimed-for combustion diffuses because of a too-large venue and a too-compressed script. The overwrought plot, which turns on themes of sins of the fathers, implodes in the one-act format. A born cable property, “The Best Man” should reconsider its contours to succeed as dramaturgy.

-- David C. Nichols

“The Best Man,” David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 N. Judge John Aiso St., L.A. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 3. $25. (310) 824-5316. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

A life shattered, and consequences

Certainly, the producers at Boston Court are not averse to taking risks. Consider the theater’s current production, “Bleed Rail,” a world premiere play about a slaughterhouse worker whose work-related injury sends him careening into indigence.

A “bleed rail” is the railing from which cattle are suspended to “bleed out” before processing. It’s here that Ryan (Dennis Flanagan) works under the most grisly and dangerous conditions. (Just note the prolific stage blood.) When a struggling animal makes a break for freedom, Ryan’s shoulder is shattered -- along with his illusions of self-sufficiency.

Playwright Mickey Birnbaum begins his darkly absurdist drama as a polemic for vegetarianism before branching off into larger, less cohesive themes about the woes of society’s underclass and the American involvement in the Iraq war. While it certainly challenges our expectations, the play’s frustratingly random tone sometimes seems more the result of dramaturgical lack of expertise than calculation.

John Zalewski’s deliberately obtrusive sound design ranges from disorienting clanging to a dimly thrumming musical underscore. To her credit, director Jessica Kubzansky weaves Birnbaum’s snippets into whole cloth of a vivid stripe. Flanagan is fittingly stunned as the doomed Ryan, while Lily Holleman rivets as a pregnant waif with a tenacious capacity for survival. A standout among the excellent cast, which includes Cyrus Alexander and Josh Clark, Hugo Armstrong goes gleefully over the top as Ryan’s macho, mysterious co-worker -- an avenging Fury who hounds Ryan into fatal action.

-- F.K.F.

“Bleed Rail,” Theatre at Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends June 17. $15. (626) 683-6883. www.bostoncourt.org. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

‘Quartet’ should pick up the pace

There’s a measure of pleasure when seasoned performers have at it, the raison d’etre of “Quartet” at Theatre 40. In its West Coast premiere, Ronald Harwood’s 1999 comedy about retired opera stars exists for four character actors to taste the scenery with elan.

That scenery, nicely designed by Jeff G. Rack, depicts the music room of a retirement home a la Casa Verdi, where “Quartet” plies its boulevard wares. It concerns four residents, all former colleagues, barely coping with their twilight years. Flighty mezzo Cecily (Jacqueline Scott) keeps Alzheimer’s at bay by mouthing silently to her recordings. Reginald (Bill Lewis), a tenor, rails against the matron who won’t let him have marmalade. Widowed baritone Wilfred (Len Lesser) revels in randy talk.

Enter the diva, soprano Jean (Katherine Henryk), Gilda from their famed “Rigoletto” lineup and Reg’s ex-wife. Her advent inspires hopes of performing the quartet from Verdi’s opera again as part of the home’s annual “Joe Green” birthday celebration. Jean, who abandoned the stage at the height of her fame, adamantly refuses. The other three conspire to change her mind, which leads to bittersweet admissions and a techno-assisted finale.

It’s amusing to watch the cast of cagey pros tackle this ham’s holiday, and they do yeoman work. However, their brio hardly masks the schematic limits of an old-fashioned vehicle, while director Laura James could lace her tempos with more presto and less andante. Harwood isn’t as relaxed in this milieu as in “The Dresser,” with too many details feeling studied. “Quartet” isn’t boring, but it’s not exactly boffo, either.

-- D.C.N.

“Quartet,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays. Call for exceptions. Ends June 3. $20-$22. (310) 364-0535. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.