Potluck

Writer/director Robert A. O’Connell loves comedy sketches, and values short-attention-span theatrical approaches to more serious issues. For instance, last season’s “Why the Sea Is Boiling Hot,” his revue of original playlets, conjures the spirit of such time-honored formats as Beyond the Fringe and Second City, especially the latter’s eggheaded early days at the University of Chicago.

In the follow-up revue, “Of Cabbages & Kings,” a tight ensemble of seven, all wearing basic black—with a few accessories as needed—cavort in and out of dim lighting, enacting 20 of O’Connell’s separate but occasionally interrelated scenes, inspired variously by modern-day issues, funny historical or fantastical scenarios or simply offbeat social situations that might not easily be found in just anyone’s life (though they doubtless exist comfortably in O’Connell’s madcap mind).

For example, in “Heading Downhill,” a young lady (Andrea Brooks) pretends she’s gay as a ploy to ensnare a man to whom she’s attracted (Dan Millard), the theory being that she can catch him off-guard since he’ll relax with her completely. The game of bait-and-switch has an unlikely conclusion. O’Connell goes biblical with “In the Garden,” an Adam and Eve scene in which feminism comes up for debate. Then “A Pair to Remember” considers what might happen when two penguins meet on the poop deck of Noah’s Ark.

Other humor pieces exploit the characters and settings found in the game Clue, satirize the saccharine mood of a Hallmark commercial (with a surprisingly penetrating climax), skew the typical notion of a conjugal prison visit and examine the keen perceptions of a pair of precocious monkeys.

There’s also a pointedly whimsical sketch about the speed-dating craze. There are four Act 2 scenes—all set in the same video recording booth at a mall—where average folks serve up their personal gripes and editorial views of the world. This fertile concept exposes some oddball and/or scary types venting perplexing feelings. The gimmick reaches real drama when a father (Joseph Grant) delivers a moving plea-cum-diatribe leveled at Bush-Cheney, excoriating them for the War in Iraq but also crying out for the safe return of his son.

As in last year’s production, O’Connell bookends his two acts with recurring scenes featuring the same two players. In this case, it’s Bunkie and Jasper (Millard and Joel Higgins), a couple of countrified fellows who hang around a campfire, working all the obvious clichés of that setup (such as playing the warbling harmonica), but adding an unexpected verbal awareness to their conversation, leading at one point to consideration of the etymology of the words “doggies” and “cowpokes.”

O’Connell has his serious moments. His “Tribute,” for example, is a heartfelt salute to the heroism of 9/11. There’s also the strangely sad “Do I Know You?” in which a middle-aged woman deals with memory loss while waiting in the doctor’s office with her husband. The penultimate scene, “The Audition Piece,” gives us a sweetly drawling Texas actress, played by Brooks, who works her coquettish Southern charm with a New York director, then suddenly stands him on his head with a serious Lady Macbeth soliloquy. It’s a promising idea, and it works in general, though the youthful Brooks’ delivery of the Shakespeare, while sincere, doesn’t quite have the intended effect.

O’Connell is certainly as successful here as he was with last season’s inaugural installment of his thoughtful and amusing entertainment. (Part three of the trilogy is currently being written.) He wrings animated and fully committed performances out of his versatile cast, most of whom take on at least a half-dozen characters through the course of the evening. Millard, Higgins and Brooks do essentially strong work, and Frank Preston and Pat Rulon also distinguish themselves in many multiple roles. The ensemble is completed with the brief but worthy appearances of Grant and Cory Carter.