‘Thing’ on a Shoestring

There’s a bargain basement feel to “This Thing of Ours,” a program of short plays presented by Cosa Nostra Productions at Two Roads Theatre. The lighting is minimal, the sets bare-bone. Props and chairs are toted onstage by the cast members, who wait for their entrances outside the theater’s back exit door.

The constraints of an obviously limited budget trickle down into unnecessarily rudimentary stagings. In particular, two short pieces by company member Trevor Annicharico are more concepts than plays, thinly realized monologues based on shallow premises.

The opener, Dennis Reardon’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues Again,” directed by Antonio Del Rivero, is a spooky parable hindered by overblown performances--with the exception of James Brown-Orleans in an effectively creepy turn as the tour guide from hell, literally.

Murphy Guyer’s “Interrogation,” which details the interaction between a man (Kenneth Castillo) and his former lover (Karla Ojeda), comes across as sexually puerile, as does Le Wilhelm’s “Power and the Glory,” in which two women (Ojeda and April Audia) in a glass elevator find feminist empowerment by exposing themselves to the men beneath.

The most successful offerings are Luis Valdez’s acid satire “Los Vendidos,” directed by Ojeda, which lampoons Latino stereotypes, and Joe DePietro’s “Executive Dance,” which features Castillo and Brown-Orleans hilariously dancing the mambo--the evening’s high note.

BE THERE

“This Thing of Ours,” Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City. Saturdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Jan. 4. $12. (818) 766-9381. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.