Gal Pals and Their Wry Rap Can ‘Rock’

Playwright Theresa Rebeck’s sardonic, character-driven comedies typically feature confused 30ish women on the cusp of change. Or not. Actually, though Rebeck’s dynamic but tortured women may talk the talk, there’s no guarantee that they will ever walk the walk--that is, act upon their better instincts and actually effect changes in their muddled lives.

Rebeck’s “Sunday on the Rocks,” now at Company of Angels, is no exception. As in her other plays “Loose Knit” and “Spike Heels,” Rebeck displays the gift of gab--sometimes to a fault. Conversation is the order of the evening--the flip, sometimes wrenching interchanges between a group of gal pals who are having their fair share of man trouble.

Given a less expert production, that chatter could easily degenerate into simple whining. Yet when smartly executed, as it is here, Rebeck’s stream-of-consciousness dialogue touches an emotional chord as well as tickles our funny bones. Not that Rebeck’s occasionally predictable plot doesn’t have its blind alleys. A religious zealot spouts hollow environmental platitudes that seem an afterthought, while a young pregnant woman is so capriciously and unmotivatedly self-destructive that she verges on the irritating.

However, director Cathy Reinking never panders for laughs and keeps her fiercely intelligent cast--which includes Rebecca O’Brien, Kim Rhodes, Justine Reiss and Kirsten Nelson--very much to the point. These characters aren’t intellectuals by any means, but they are sharp-tongued, outrageous and unfailingly diverting, the flawed spokespersons for a narcissistic age.

* “Sunday on the Rocks,” Company of Angels, 2106 Hyperion Blvd., Silver Lake. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends May 17. $15. (323) 883-1717. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.