Small-Town Improv Class Lies at the Heart of ‘Embraceable You’

How ironic that the action in “Embraceable You,” at the Tamarind, revolves around the participants in an improvisational theater class. At times, Joshua Rebell’s drama about the lovelorn inhabitants of a small Vermont college town seems so randomly assembled that it could have been exactly transcribed from such a class.

The play does effectively capture the malaise of a small town in a bitterly cold climate, where lack of sunlight and opportunity are equally dispiriting. Anxious to escape her emotional isolation, Alice (Kristin Carey) takes an improv class with Professor Larabee (Garnett Smith) from the nearby college, in hopes that the communication skills she gains will revive her relationship with Matt (Grant Cramer).

Newly pregnant, Alice hopes to find the stability and happiness she has never known. Then there is Janet (Aimee Bourgon), a waitress routinely abused by her vicious boyfriend Richie (Jason Schnuit)--who also happens to be in Alice’s improv class. (After all, this is a small town.) In the wake of a violent incident, a painful triangle arises among Matt, Alice and Janet.

Director Cassius Allen and his cast strive for a slice-of-life spontaneity, a stylistic intent nicely underscored by vintage jazz and Jeff Bernstein’s original score. However, in drama, as in jazz, a theme must be established before its practitioners can branch off into experimental variations on the same. Rebell’s drama lacks a unifying premise, without which even its most urgent emotional riffs sound like strident scale exercises in a minor key.

* “Embraceable You,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 14. $15. (818) 760-8995. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.