Lost Girls ***

It’s almost exactly two years since John Pollono’s play “Small Engine Repair” made a big splash at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. That testosterone-driven tale of three working stiffs in Manchester, NH and the college boy who crossed their path packed quite a wallop. (And it made my 10 best play list for 2013.) The new play, also produced by MCC Theater, could almost serve as a bookend. We are back among the working class in southern New Hampshire, but this time it’s the women who hold center stage. During a nor’easter that has made driving perilous, sharp-tongued Maggie (Piper Perabo), who is struggling to hang onto a place in the lower middle class, discovers that her 10-year-old Honda is missing. When she reports the theft to the police, they alert her cop ex-husband Lou (Ebon Moss-Bacharach) who turns up uninvited with his annoyingly perky second wife Penny (Meghann Fahy). Linda (Tasha Lawrence), Maggie’s equally foul-mouthed mother, who lives with her, repeatedly demonstrates her skill at getting under people’s skin. It turns out that the car thief is none other than Maggie and Lou’s teenage daughter. The set rotates from Maggie’s modest house to a motel room in Connecticut where we meet a pair of high school classmates who have run off together. More specifically, the brassy girl (Lizzy Declement) has talked the innocent boy (Josh Green) into driving her to Florida for a rendezvous with her much older boyfriend. He has reluctantly agreed because he has been smitten with her since second grade. The scenes alternate between Maggie’s house and the motel room. Maggie and Lou learn that the Honda has been involved in a major highway accident, but the power goes out before they can learn how their daughter is. Back at the motel, things have turned romantic. I won’t reveal the outcome except to say that there is a tricky development near the end that I have mixed feelings about. Two of three theater-savvy friends who attended the same performance missed it, so I think director Jo Bonney needs to do something to make the ending clearer. I wish the actors didn't need to struggle so hard with the New England accent. Richard Hoover’s revolving set and Theresa Squire’s costumes capture the correct ambience. While this play is not as good as “Small Engine Repair,” it’s consistently involving and entertaining. Running time: 95 minutes, no intermission.

Small Engine Repair ****

For the first 45 minutes or so, John Pollono's play at MCC Theater appears to be just one more raunchy blue-collar buddy reunion comedy, albeit one with unusually well-written dialogue and well-differentiated characters.  Frank (playwright Pollono), the mid-30's owner of the titular repair shop in Manchester, NH, has tricked his two oldest friends, the slight, sensitive Packie (James Ransone) and the commitment-phobic ladies' man Swaino (James Badge Dale), into coming over to the shop after work. Although their friendship dates back to childhood, Packie and Swaino have become estranged and the three have not spent time together in years. Frank plies them with beer, scotch, weed and the promise of the drug Ecstasy, soon to be delivered by Chad (Keegan Allen), a college boy from Boston, who deals on the side. I don't want to give too much away, but I don't think it will hurt to mention that the perils of social interaction in the internet age come into play. When there is a sudden shift from comedy to thriller, it comes as a real jolt. Rarely have I seen an audience more engrossed than during the climactic scene. I will grant that the play is manipulative, but sometimes it's fun to be manipulated. The resolution may be politically incorrect, but it has the ring of plausibility. The actors are all sensational. The set by Richard Hoover is terrific and the costumes by Theresa Squire are wonderful. Jo Bonney's direction is assured. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.

Good Television ***

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A TV reality show called "Rehabilitation" might seem too easy a target, but Rod McLachlan's off-Broadway debut play in previews at Atlantic Stage 2 generally avoids easy satire. Bernice (Talia Balsam) is the cynical show runner. Connie (Kelly McAndrew) is the senior producer responsible for selecting which addicts will be cast for the show and, thereby, get a family intervention and a chance for free rehab. Tara (Jessica Cummings) is the idealistic new hire fresh out of film school (and the boss's cousin). Ethan (Andrew Stewart-Jones) is brought in to run the show when Bernice bails for an infotainment show on Fox. The production team must decide whether to cast Clemson MacAddy (John Magaro) of Aiken, SC, a teen-aged meth addict, for the show. His sister Brittany (Zoe Perry) is a single mom struggling to care for her kids, her dying mother and her addict younger brother. Their older brother Mackson (Luke Robertson) is rarely around to help, but shows up as soon as he sniffs opportunity. Their long-absent abusive father (Ned Van Zandt) puts in an appearance too. When film crew and MacAddy family meet in Act Two, things do not go smoothly -- to put it mildly. All the actors are good, but McAndrew and Perry are superb. The bond that grows between their characters is the play's backbone. Eric Southern's set, Theresa Squire's costumes and Bob Krakower's direction are all fine. The play raises interesting ethical questions: who is deserving vs. who is likely to yield "good television?" What, if any, are the differences between documentary and reality show? Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes including intermission. Note: Avoid Row A at Atlantic Stage 2. It is actually the second row and not raised above the front row.

The Mound Builders **

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Allegedly Lanford Wilson named this play as his personal favorite. Judging from the current revival at Signature Theatre, it is difficult to understand why. During the lengthy first act, we meet August Howe (David Conrad), a famous professor who is conducting an archeological dig in 1975 in southern Illinois on the site of a vanished pre-Columbian culture. As the play's framing device, Howe is recording his notes on the disastrous events of the previous summer for his unseen secretary to transcribe. His comments are interspersed with slides photographed by his wife. The dig is a race against time, because the site is soon to be inundated and obliterated by a new dam and interstate highway. He shares a house at the site with his wife Cynthia (Janie Brookshire), their daughter Kirsten (Rachel Resheff), his colleague Dr. Dan Loggins (Zachary Booth) and his pregnant wife Jean (Lisa Joyce) who is on leave from her job as a gynecologist and who, as a child, had a nervous breakdown after winning the national spelling bee. They are frequently visited by Chad Jasker (Will Rogers), the son of the site's owner, who has dollar signs in his eyes anticipating the wealth that will be generated by the upcoming construction. Jasker is also sleeping with one of the wives and lusting after the other -- and possibly her husband too, which would be more plausible if Rogers displayed a scintilla of sex appeal and didn't come across as the village idiot. This motley crew is suddenly augmented by the arrival of August's sister D.K. (Danielle Skraastad), a former novelist and present addict. As the lady next to me aptly remarked: "She must be a visitor from a more interesting play." In the second act, the underlying conflicts erupt tragically, but not without leaving time for several lyrical speeches. One does not have to dig very deep to unearth a slew of metaphors about society, academic hubris, greed and the high cost of failure to focus on the people closest to you. The actors do not seem to have an affinity for Wilson's language and Jo Bonney's direction fails to keep them all on the same page. Neil Patel's simple set is evocative and Theresa Squire's costumes are fine. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes including intermission.