A Dark Guardian Angel

“Bitten by a Fly� isn’t the most promising sounding title for a play, but Colin Mitchell’s new piece, which he co-directs with Tamara McDonough at the Actor’s Lab, introduces us to the kind of fly you’d expect to meet in Hollywood if he donned a human guise--slicked-back ponytail, a goatee and dark glasses. He’s both nemesis and guardian angel of a tortured artist.

We don’t see the fly at first on Kris Knekt’s too-cute green hill with a tree and picturesque picnic setting. Instead, a tempestuous, alcohol-dependent artist, Lola McManus (Salli Saffioti) complains about the pesky insect, swatting at the bug periodically as she attempts to seduce her protege, Sullivan Arbuckle (Mitchell), a bashful Texas boy.

McManus was once proclaimed “Van Gogh reborn in a woman’s body� and is now the star attraction at an exclusive Connecticut school, but today she’s having mood swings. Is it her ego or the champagne she’s slogging down for breakfast? Either way, she’s forgotten her appointment with the dour, serious Donald (Dean Gregory), who was promised one of her paintings for the nonprofit youth organization he heads. The school’s director and Lola’s agent, Tori (Jenny O’Hara), is embarrassed by the drift of her prize teacher’s current curriculum.

Although Tori admits that her own “history is a wasteland of deceit,� she tries to smooth things out between Lola and Donald, because Lola and the school need the publicity. Lola hasn’t produced anything for the last three years. Donald has been burning a flame of infatuation that Lola quickly douses with her arrogance.

But in a few hours, Lola is at the mercy of a fly (Barry Kramer) who bites her. Infected with a rare disease, Lola becomes blind. In the second act, Knekt’s set plunges from perky and bright to dark and desolate. Dawn Ferry’s lighting design subtly suggests both gloom and hope. Lola is now confined to her dingy studio. Her only companions are the fly, her bug-repellent candles that she constantly burns, bug spray and various bottles of alcohol. Waiting for a hero, she writes letters to Donald, who she believes will save her.

Although the ending is hard to swallow, the performances and Mitchell’s snappy dialogue make this easy to forgive. Saffioti gives a snarling, passionate performance as a woman driven by fear. Mitchell has a sweet charm as the talented hick, out of his league. O’Hara is funny as the real parasite of this parable. Kramer and Gregory provide needed gravity.

Mitchell’s play is an intense but humorous visit to a surreal world where flies can be fallen angels in disguise, who gently guide the gifted humans toward grace and redemption.

* “Bitten by a Fly,� Actor’s Lab, 1514 N. Gardner Ave., West Hollywood. Thursdays through Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends May 6. $15. (323) 938-0204. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.