STAGE BEAT : ‘Town and Country’: Quirky and Murky

A pair of quirky one-acts under the umbrella title of “Town and Country” are conspiring to give abstract theater a murky name at Theatre/Theater.

In “The Fire Museum,” the sex-and-arson-addicted Kid (the shifty-eyed Jack Black), the lusting female Mogul (the anxious Shawna Casey) and a hunk homosexual fireman named Frank (the bland Jason Reed) create a grueling melange a trois that drives you up the tiny wall of the cozy Back Space.

“Holding Down White” is a notch better. An over-the-hill country club lady who wields a wicked tennis racket (aggressive Roxanne Rogers) is married to a full-of-himself tennis pro (suavely fatuous Dan Bell). He, in turn, is seduced by a lascivious young swimmer (gleaming Megan Butler) whose one-piece suit makes her look like Esther Williams in “Bathing Beauty.”

All the characters wear white. Butler’s aura of intrigue is exactly the kind of sexual hauteur you would love to see hurled into the pool but no luck--even the tennis wife is hot for her.

At least playwright Adelaide MacKenzie and director Michael Sargent, credited on both works, keep it short.

* “Town and Country,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 16. $10. (213) 850-6941. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.