Theatre in Review: Why Bother? (Planet Connections Theatre Festival) Why Bother? is a showcase for young writing talent, but the acting is the thing in this quartet of one-act comedies. Given material that ranges from delightful to hackneyed, a game cast of young talents keeps things watchable under all circumstances. The evening gets off to a solid start with Robin Rothstein's Keeping Pace, in which a pair of best friends, both actors, indulges in games of one-upmanship while exercising side by side on running machines. One of them (Thom Christensen) keeps demolishing his good bud (Joey Gambetta) with his humble-bragging and undermining comments; appearing to play down his new role on a television series, he says, "Anyway, they cast me as the recurring pimp guy." As Gambetta's sad-sack character rehearses his one line in an action film, Christensen eggs him on, saying, "I'm telling you---Vin Diesel, look out!" Both actors know exactly what to do with this material, right up to the O. Henry twist that proves definitively that you should never lose your cool while training. This is followed by Mark Jason Williams' Crazy at Heart, which traffics in such stereotypes as the therapist who is nuttier than any patient and your standard gay actor-waiter-office temp, who is frustrated in all aspects of his life.. The latter (Steven De Luca) consults the good doctor (Kathy Searle) after running drunkenly amok at a friend's party. To be sure, he doesn't think he has a problem: "Wash down a few Cymbalas with a bottle of gin and all of a sudden you're suicidal," he scoffs. The sketch, which plays like a very rough early draft of Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy, tracks their tumultuous relationship, which leads to a sort-of emotional progress. It is generally overdrawn but the author does have a way with a line: "Lots of therapists are on Groupon," the doctor says, defensively. (Searle also appears, amusingly, between the other plays, offering M&Ms and trolling for patients.) Illuminati is by John Pollono, who got plenty of attention last fall with the tightly plotted comic melodrama Small Engine Repair. This one suffers from a few too many tonal shifts. Dana Domenick is an actress, who, having fled her native Boston--she is clearly a girl from Southie--has ended up in a fringe theatre in Los Angeles, appearing in what appears to be an excruciatingly symbolic epic about angels, heroin addiction, incest, dreams, you name it. Her brother (Christensen, again) has to come to visit and he is at a loss for words, to say the least. "You know, they really ought to give out supplemental materials," he says, trying to be diplomatic. The sibling battle that ensues is about far more than dramaturgy, and is much more engaging than the rather ham-handed spoof of bad theatre with which it is intertwined. John Gazzale does what he can with the role of the pretentious playwright-director-star. Wrapping it all up is Doll Play, in which three friends confront the fact that all of them have been with the same woman. One of them (Brian J. Carter) wants to marry her, but it becomes clear from their information-sharing that he is the least accomplished lover of the trio. Another (Simon Pearl) decides to hand out a little sex therapy using an enormous bear plush toy that the third (Scott Aiello) is about to give to his niece. What follows is barely plausible and wildly raunchy, but generates more than enough laughs to quality as the evening's guilty pleasure. I can guarantee you'll never a plush toy the same way again. It seems safe to say that the cast has benefited from the direction of Andrew Block, who clearly knows how to get the most out of a script. The design is totally bare-bones, but that's appropriate for this kind of presentation. Why Bother? is an unfortunate title; skeptical patrons may provide an unwanted answer while perusing the theatre listings. Stills, this is a never less than pleasant evening; reminds one of the remarkable breadth of acting talent available in New York.--David Barbour 
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