STAGE REVIEW : LISTENING TO ‘HEARTS’ PARTING

Is there a more apt phrase in the language than falling in love ? Lovers alone know the hazards of passion, usually after they’ve fallen out of love. It is in the chaotic, senseless maze of warped emotions that Dennis Raymond Smeal has deposited the two lovers of his distinctive, frustrating character study, “Hearts,� at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.

A sentimental-sounding title for a very unsentimental play. Smeal, in the rewarding tradition of such playwright/mathematicians as Shaw and Pinter, draws up proofs and theorems for his modern couple. He observes their words and actions with detached curiosity. He puts them through the wringer and notes how they come out.

Smeal’s manner is as cool as Enrique A. Posner’s set, all black and white furniture and hanging designer window blinds. It’s certainly as cool as Katherine (Daphne Ashbrook), who enters with a professional polish in an outfit that fuses haute couture and upper management. She sets the table for Peter (Tony Fields) with businesslike efficiency and speed. It’s almost an afterthought that the table setting includes the romantic touches of wine and candles.

You sense, too, that Katherine is Smeal’s alter ego during the dinner scene, when she employs the Socratic method to plumb Peter’s identity (She: “What do you want?� He: “To renegotiate the past�). No small talk for these two.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t talk. There is--to an excessive degree. Katherine, mostly, has the upper hand in verbal skills, which is interesting considering that Peter’s a writer (she’s an actress). And much of the word avalanche that Smeal manufactures sounds interesting, when it’s not trying to sound like one of the Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd “Moonlighting� exchanges (Fields and Ashbrook visually suggest that couple as well). It’s the difference between wordsmithing, which he can drive you batty with, and writing characters.

What Smeal seems most comfortable with, as he takes his lovers from the dinner table to the bed and on to the morning after, is experimenting with the theatrical cliches that this kind of setup suggests. These three phases constitute three acts entitled “Minuet,� “Pas de Deux� and “Scherzo.� They recall those arts of second-to-second precision, music and dance; Smeal’s own precision emphasizes parry and thrust, resulting in two wounded people, over the play’s emotional potential.

You can respect the choice made, while wanting to jettison half the text. Director Terrence Nolen clearly respects Smeal’s choice, sometimes blocking Fields and Ashbrook like opposing players on a field (it might have even greater power on a larger stage). He encourages the cold fish approach from Ashbrook’s Katherine, who says “I sliced it away� when reporting on her abortion. He draws vulnerability from Fields, more for contrast, it feels, than because the text demands it.

The actors anchor this play down when the storm of words threatens to capsize it. Katherine’s ultimate reason for leaving Peter hinges on her belief in reincarnation. For once, Peter is without words. But “Hearts,� for now, is a play without a real ending.

Performances at 254 S. Robertson Blvd., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m. Ends July 5. Tickets: $10-12, (213) 465-0070.