Lawson Taitte

Maybe they ought to make a rule that the Festival of Independent Theatres should feature only work by Dallas playwrights.

Of the six shows that have opened so far in the 10th annual festival at the Bath House Cultural Center, the two most exciting are locally grown. Project X premiered a pair of short plays by Thomas Riccio, and Echo Theatre (in association with My Way Productions) is presenting Isabella Russell-Ides' Coco & Gigi.

So There and Orange Oranges are the first two installments of a projected 24 in Mr. Riccio's Simulations, designed to capture what it feels like to live in Dallas today. So There begins as a marketing expert (Sara Boland-Taylor) lectures the audience on how contemporary teenage girls define themselves by the products they buy. Three actual area teens indulge in hilarious conversations that follow one grammatical rule: The word "like" must be used parenthetically at least once in every sentence. A geeky male peer (Benjamin Connors) vociferously resists the blandishments of brand names.

In Orange Oranges a decidedly odd couple (Brad Hennigan and Lori McCarty) visit a puzzled psychiatrist (Jaclyn McLaughlin). Both pieces spice up Mr. Riccio's sometimes dark vision of our city with a bit of satire, and the playwright has directed them beautifully.

Coco & Gigi conflates two versions of the same script, originally for a couple of a certain age, rewritten for a younger duo. Pam Myers-Morgan directed Ellen Locy and John S. Davies in the first, while quite separately H.J. Steward staged a somewhat altered text with Ashley Wilkerson and Jeanette Scott – with the two components only brought together at the last moment.

Ms. Russell-Ides has written a charming homage to Waiting for Godot, with a soupcon of I Love Lucy added to the mix. The dialogue vies with Samuel Beckett's own in its metaphysical obsessions, but the Dallas playwright incorporates a more realistic back story for each version than Mr. Beckett ever bothered with. Both pairs of actors contribute brilliant – and quite different – interpretations to this very amusing conceit.

Also reviewed on Saturday were two productions by well-known American playwrights. For its FIT debut, 1:30 Productions turned out elegant but slightly over-emphatic renditions of two Tennessee Williams short-shorts, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion and Hello From Bertha, directed by Larry Randolph. Marty Van Kleek and Mary Lang each get to play one down-on-her-luck lady of the night and one coldhearted landlady who has run out of patience. Vikas Adams takes a refreshingly different kind of assignment from usual as a tough-talking writer.

Christopher Durang's Laughing Wild is beginning to feel very dated, and it wasn't all that strong a script to begin with. For Act I Productions, director Tom Parr IV doesn't have his usual success in grounding laughs in realistic characterization. Ginger Goldman and Brian Witkowicz, two of our funniest actors, manage to find some amusement in their unpleasant roles without ever convincing us that they could be these people.

PLAN YOUR LIFE The Festival of Independent Theatres at the Bath House Cultural Center through Aug. 9. Festival passes $49 to $69, individual tickets $12 to $16. TITAS at 214-528-5576, www.bathhousecultural.com.

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