This week: back-to-back farces. South Coast Rep has just opened Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus; Diversionary Theatre offers Nicky Silver’s Fit to Be Tied.

Ah, the ‘70s – the “Me” decade. What a rich period to spoof: Carnaby Street clothes. The dopey songs. Disco.

Playwright Alan Bennett takes them all, mixes with stock commedia dell’arte characters and offers a savory stew called Habeas Corpus, now on the boards at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa.

Habeas Corpus is a ‘70s sex farce with movable mounds and walls instead of doors, and “updated” attitudes — the flat-chested Connie (Kate A. Mulligan) buys hi-tech falsies that come with a (male) fitting technician; the recurring line is “This is what they mean by ‘permissive society.’”

Here’s the roll call: Arthur Wicksteed (Hal Landon, Jr.), a physician who hates bodies until he sees young Felicity Rumpers (Lynsey McLeod); Arthur’s wife Muriel (Caitlin O’Connell), whose “cake decorating class” takes place in a hotel room inhabited by her old flame Percy (Patrick Kerr); their hypochondriacal son Dennis (Christopher Liam Moore), who has his own designs on Felicity, and the aforementioned Aunt Connie, pined after by Canon Throbbing (Daniel T. Parker). And there’s Felicity’s mother, Lady Rumpers (Lynnda Ferguson).

If the plot runs from silly to stupid, production value remains uniformly high: pacing that keeps the traffic flowing; movable sets adding to the chaos; the songs (“Girl Talk,” “I Want Your Love,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”). And the costumes! Did we really wear such god-awful plaids and those horrid boots?

“In the three weeks I’ve been here,” complains Lady Rumpers, “all I hear about is sex, sex, sex. I’m not having any.” But Lady Rumpers and a putatively suicidal patient of Arthur’s, who wanders through from time to time, are alone in this.

Director Bill Rauch has assembled a spot-on cast, anchored by Jane Carr’s knowing maid Mrs. Swabb, who observes the randy proceedings with the eye of one who has seen it all and does not hesitate to comment. There’s plenty of T & A to mention (though all of it is at least partly covered), but her soft shoe number “covering up” one of the many assignations is a major hoot.

Habeas Corpus, written pre-AIDS, seems rather quaint and innocent viewed from this century, but the major problem (nobody is ever quite happy) has not changed. This play touches on that earlier sadness rather than the more fatal ones we deal with today, but keeps the proceedings light enough to seem comical. Habeas Corpus will not be confused with “important theater”. But given this great production, it’s difficult not to get caught up in its determined silliness.

Habeas Corpus runs through Nov. 21 at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa. Shows Tues.-Fri. at 8:00 p.m.; Sun. at 7:30 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. matinees at 2:30 p.m. For tickets: (714) 708-0555, or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to the South Coast Repertory Theatre website.

Nicky Silver’s stock in trade is making fun of everything, including love, fear, death, obsession, family, even other plays (here including Angels in America).

In Fit to Be Tied, the main character Arloc (Joey Landwehr) is very rich and very lonely – his billionaire father died, leaving all the money to him, prompting his mother Nessa (Jill Drexler) to sue, resulting in a, shall we say, strained relationship with her.

Arloc obsesses about many things, among them the untimely death of a former lover. “Pneumonia is a code word when you read it in the paper,” he notes, but is more upset that “no one called me. I read about it in the paper.”

Arloc also obsesses about his own death – at one point he mentions a suspicious-looking lesion – and the results of medical tests lie unopened on his desk, like an unwelcome character in the drama.

But the screwball vision is never far from Silver’s pen, and Arloc walks and walks until he meets an angel – a fake one named Boyd (Brennan Taylor), a homeless waif who plays an angel in the Radio City Christmas pageant. Arloc finds him winged and costumed, walking the streets in an attempt to escape a vicious cast member.

Convincing himself that Boyd is what he wants, Arloc takes him home. But his technique is a bit rusty; he makes a move almost immediately. Boyd backs away and tries to leave, but (here’s where it starts getting really silly) Arloc tempts the impecunious angel with an offer of $500 if he will allow Arloc to tie him up for five minutes, leading to the least probable bondage scene in the history of kink.

But this is farce, after all, and the doorbell rings just as the setup is completed. Arloc shoves the bound Boyd (in a high-backed chair on rollers) into the closet (get it?) while he opens the door to Nessa, who bursts in triumphantly proclaiming that she’s left second husband Carl and wants to move in with Arloc, and oh, by the way, could he go home and pick up her packed suitcases?

It’s a gloriously silly setup for an utterly incredible ménage à trois, but Silver’s script is such fun and the acting so spot-on hilarious that it works.

It’s difficult to imagine staying on the level of that brilliant first act, and Silver does let down a bit after intermission. The underwritten character of Carl becomes more obviously so, and the uncharacteristically “happy” ending seems a bit suspect. Still, the main characters are so well-written and even sympathetic that it’s a small enough price to pay.

Landwehr’s Arloc is a wonder, brilliantly moving between serious depression and the nuttiness that only longing for love can inspire. But almost stealing the show is Drexler, whose chain-smoking Nessa is a fast-talking, bigger (or at least louder)-than-life motormouth who figures one way to get what she wants is to create her own reality.

”When people ask me what you do,” she says to Arloc, “I say you read pornographic novels to the blind.”

Taylor’s Boyd suffers a bit from the blank-slate characterization Silver has given him, but he does what he can with the part. He looks great as an angel.

Fit to Be Tied, wonderfully directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, gets Diversionary back on track as one of the best small theater companies around. Get yourself a ticket for this show. You won’t regret it.

Fit to Be Tied plays through Dec. 4 at Diversionary Theatre in Hillcrest. Shows Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 8:00 p.m., Sun. at 7:00 p.m. Matinees at 2:00 p.m. Nov. 14, 21 and 28. For tickets: (619) 220-0097, or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to Diversionary Theatre’s website.