One-act studies buddies, bravery

Audiences hungry for wartime allegory will devour “Pump Room 111” at the Next Stage Theater in Hollywood. Gabriel Carrasco’s one-act about four sailors in Pearl Harbor is a promising profile in courage and comradeship under fire.

The protagonist is sailor Mike (Matthew Dorio), who frames the plot in aged retrospect. We flash back to Dec. 6, 1941, when Cliff (Frank Martinez), Buddy (Jimmy Nall) and the aptly nicknamed “Kid” (Rene Amabizica) arrive at a local canteen in festive mode.

Mike, the fleet’s Casanova, joins them, then leaves with bargirl Linda (Stephanie Ferg) for beach-front intimacy. From here, they witness the Japanese attack, which leaves Mike’s mates trapped in the title locale aboard the stricken U.S.S. West Virginia.

Director Salvador Sanchez is quite inventive, landing neat effects from limited means. Bruce Oscar Leon’s lighting does the same with sparse fixtures, and choreographer Ouija Whittemore’s opening jitterbug is apt.

Dorio and Ferg display proficient emotional control as do Martinez, Nall and Amabizica, who interact with notable skill, especially their urgent maneuvers below deck.

Here, Carrasco’s writing hearkens after early Eugene O’Neill. Elsewhere, his hasty narrative doesn’t support the stakes he sets. The characters have barely registered when history intervenes, sending them into soul-searching without adequate development.

Though not without merit, “Pump Room 111” needs refining and expansion of the basic goods Carrasco has at his disposal.

-- David C. Nichols

“Pump Room 111,” Next Stage Theater, 1523 N. La Brea, Suite 201, Hollywood. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends May 27. Mature audiences. $10-$12. (310) 403-4662. Running time: 55 minutes.