Performing Arts

ADDISON – How many losers does it take to create a winner?

Six, as summed up by Zero.

That's the name of the one-man show performed by Danny O'Connor, which he wrote with his late brother, Robert. It opened a six-week stand (divided between Addison and Plano) on Thursday at WaterTower Theatre.

During the course of the evening, Mr. O'Connor plays six different guys, sometimes three at a time, bouncing from character to character merely with a change of posture and voice. They're all eight years out of high school – with not a whole lot to show for their lives so far.

Nan Coulter / Special to DMN

Danny O'Connor rehearses for Thursday's performance of Zero, which he wrote with his late brother, Robert.

They all know about losing, one way or another. What's worse, each of their imaginations is still haunted by Mindy, the most beautiful girl in their high school class.

The central character, Leonard, wakes up so hung over he can't remember whether he might actually have gone to bed with her the night before. He has to pick up his Army buddy, Alex, to meet the macho Sam at a bar later in the evening. It will take 15 shots of Jägermeister for Alex to begin telling his war stories.

The other three characters, seen only in monologues, form a parallel subplot. Gabe, the class fat kid, has trimmed down and become a stud. He meets the timid James to attend a performance before they go on to a party. The dance-cum-poetry reading by an artist named Malthazar is appalling – and appallingly funny.

The whole first act of Zero, actually, lurches from laugh to laugh almost without stopping for breath. Part of the humor stems from the profane poetry of men talking to each other outside the presence of women. The rest Mr. O'Connor – who returned to the Dallas area in the last year after acting in Chicago – earns with his rubber face and perfect timing.

Things get more serious in the second act, when some of the characters start deciding they don't want to get to 30 as failures. They keep looking at themselves in imaginary mirrors. You get the feeling that Mr. O'Connor did a lot of similar soul-searching in putting this show together.

He can rest easy. This Zero proves he amounts to something.

•Through Sept. 15 at WaterTower Theatre's Studio Space, Addison Theatre and Conference Centre, 15650 Addison Rd., Addison. Runs 120 mins. $15. 972-450-6232; www.watertower theatre.org. Also runs Sept. 27-Oct. 13 at Cox Building Playhouse, 1509 Ave. H, Plano. 972-422-2575; www.planostages.tix.com