Relationships are always evolving

The parallel universe that is Zombie Joe’s Underground allows little room for analysis. The latest offering, “Time Travel,” allows little room, period. Its sofa-and-chair set is less in your face than in your lap. Such raw proximity lets the absurdist glee of its crazed players outweigh the sketchy aspects of William Norrett’s garage-show script. Targets include sex, therapy, relationships and Peyton Manning, for starters.

Josh T. Ryan’s staging and Lynn Granville’s sound and lights slice across four segments linked by straight-faced Dr. Margaret Queenan (the droll Heike Brunner). In “Single, Part 1,” she prompts client Bridget (Tracie Cisneros, demented as ever) to share a wild NFL-centric nightmare. As wacky coda, Bridget dances with herself and Billy Idol.

The next section, “Marriage,” concerns Chloe and Donald (Rie Sharky and Dan Pucul, well-contrasted comic finds). Zippy blackouts follow them from first date to marital crisis over his urban legend-driven fixation on a Phil Collins hit. This running gag, stretched to hysterical levels, drives Chloe to heavy metal devotee Styx (deadpan Michele Lainevool), while Dr. Queenan grows increasingly less strait-laced.

“Single, Part 2” is transitory, a session with Evan (Pucul), who suggests Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley inverted on Estroven. The Firesign Theatre-flavored finale, “Divorce,” benefits from director Ryan and Rainey K. Taylor, hilarious as an ex-power couple in caustic reunion at their problem child’s boarding school. As the climax nears, Headmaster Mansfield (Pucul) alerts Sister Dandridge (Cisneros) that mustard gas catastrophe is imminent. Her offstage reply: “You want me to forward the phones?”

It turns on a time-altering rock. Welcome to Zombie Joe’s world.

-- David C. Nichols

“Time Travel,” ZJU Theatre, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Dark May 13. Ends May 14. Mature audiences. $10. (818) 202-4120. Running time: 55 minutes.

*

A ‘Poem’ that tries to balance humor and seriousness

At the beginning of D.T. Arcieri’s “Japanese Death Poem,” a world premiere at Theatre 40, a character firmly states that the play is a comedy. But that pronouncement turns out to be a bit of false advertising. Arcieri’s sweetly silly but insubstantial play eventually lapses into strained seriousness.

Underachieving poet Nathan (Richard Hoyt Miller, alternating in the role with director Stephen Tobolowsky) fears for his marriage. It seems that his wife, Jenny (Julie Hagerty), has been acting in a bizarre manner that has Nathan questioning her motives, if not her sanity.

And indeed, Jenny has been carrying on with Nathan’s obnoxious half-brother Jonathan (Gavin Glennon, alternating with David Hunt Stafford), a dermatologist who has parlayed a minimal IQ into a maximum bank account.

The action takes place in a series of elliptical scenes, culminating in a plot “twist” of singular predictability. Only Hagerty is single-cast, for obvious reasons. The character of Jenny seems written for Hagerty, who plays the role with the same lovable befuddlement she displayed in “Airplane!” comedies. That breathy uncertainty wears thin, although through no fault of Hagerty, who brings a saving gravity to her familiarly dizzy character.

The liability lies with Arcieri, whose revelation of the organic basis for Jenny’s caprices does not make the play’s earlier inconsistencies any less irritating.

In an almost meditatively austere staging, Tobolowsky handles the play as if it carried some great thematic weight -- an approach that largely mitigates the material’s general cutesiness. Well-paced and taut, the production features nicely calibrated performances from a sharply professional cast that includes Scott Facher alternating with Austin Peck. A prime occasion for hearty chuckles, “Poem” struggles for a belated profundity that never quite coalesces.

-- F. Kathleen Foley

“Japanese Death Poem,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. matinees this Saturday and May 7, 14 and 22. Ends May 22. $18 and $20. (310) 364-0535. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.