Kemp (Ron Choularton), a middle-aged British low-level bank employee, rushes to the side of his Aunt Grace (Pat DiMeo), from whom he’s received the cryptic message “I’m dying.” Kemp hasn’t seen her in years, and isn’t exactly longing to do so now, but he does hope to inherit her money, and soon.

What he finds is an old woman with terror in her eyes who speaks nary a word. Undaunted, Kemp starts out breezily with the bright question, “Let’s not talk about anything depressing, all right? Do you want to be cremated?” Auntie scowls, but Kemp carries on the one-sided conversation in that vein until the last line of the first act.

It’s Morris Panych’s black comedy Vigil, originally produced at the Fritz Theatre in 1996 and back for a return engagement through March 27 at 6th@Penn Theatre.

Time goes on, the seasons roll by and Auntie does not die. Kemp blathers on, the monologue becoming more and more outrageous (“Why are you putting on makeup? Why don’t you let the mortician do that?”). Out of boredom, he kills time staring out the window into the neighbor’s apartment across the street. She is another elderly woman who seems never to move from her chair.

Meanwhile, Grace watches and listens in horrified silence to Kemp’s thoughtless comments, performing little acts of secret subversion when she can.

As he talks, Kemp reveals his own unhappy childhood with a manic-depressive father (“I thought it was normal for people to dig their own grave in the backyard”), and a peculiar relationship develops between these two odd birds.

Canadian playwright Panych credits his Irish and Slavic background for the dark humor that results in a wacky view of serious topics like failure, death and madness. His characters are neurotic, to be sure, but also have a kind of quirky humor that makes them endearing.

Choularton is spectacular as Kemp, a part which depends as much on timing as on acting ability. He goes from a chilly let’s-get-this-over-with attitude to a frustrated why-doesn’t-she-die to maybe-I-can-help-her to a sort of acceptance and even rapprochement, all with perfect timing and great humor. And it doesn’t hurt that the accent is authentic.

In contrast to Kemp’s verbal diarrhea is DiMeo, who doesn’t speak until the last line of the first act and has to do everything nonverbally. But she’s up to the challenge. Horror, indignation, fury, fear, mischievousness and even tenderness come through loud and clear.

Vigil treats a topic that will have particular resonance for the generation now dealing with aged and/or ailing parents, and does it in a way that will have you screaming with laughter.

The 1996 production of Vigil went to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, where it garnered four-star reviews. Oddly enough, it has only had three productions in this country, two of them here in San Diego (the third was in Sacramento).

Panych deserves a wider audience. Get thee to 6th@Penn for this terrific show. And hey, Fritz: How about another Panych sometime soon?

Vigil plays through March 27 at 6th@Penn Theatre in Hillcrest. Shows Thurs.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; Sun. at 3:00 and 7:00 p.m.; shows March 28, 30 and 31 at 7:30 p.m. For tickets call (619) 233-7505.

Farce is, by definition, a silly art form, stuffed (as the original Latin word suggests) with low comedy and improbable situations. Relying on doors opening and closing, inopportune entrances and exits, and people behaving badly (or at least trying to), a farce is a sort of extended chase scene in which almost everybody gets caught.

So it is with Mark O’Donnell’s translation and adaptation of Georges Feydeau’s Private Fittings, playing through March 27 at La Jolla Playhouse’s new Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

You’ll know you’re in for an evening of silliness when the pre-show open-your-cellophane-wrapped-candies -now announcement warns that the rage function of a high-tech robotic dog in the play may be activated by the sound of crinkly paper.

The location has been moved from Paris in the Belle Epoque to La Jolla this year. Much of the action takes place in the sleek house owned by newlyweds Eric (Kyle Fabel) and Yvonne (Stana Katic), only months wed and already sleeping in separate bedrooms. Instead of the omnipresent French maid, this couple has pool cleaner and surfer dude Steve (Eric Wippo), a sycophant mainly concerned with keeping his comfortable gig.

Buckle up and let me try to explain the plot. Eric, a New Age spiritual adviser in La Jolla, has the hots for Suzanne (Jessica Boevers), dimwitted wife of Conan (Chris Kipinick).

Eric has spent the night crumpled up in his car due to a tryst with Suzanne foiled by Conan (which has given him neck and back problems for the rest of the play). He tries to use his friend Drew as his alibi to Yvonne, but of course Drew comes through one of those doors to blow Eric’s cover. Yvonne’s mother Harriet (Joan van Ark), omnipresent author of self-help books like How to Hate the Mate, shows up everywhere to perform the usual in-law buttinsky chores.

Meanwhile Drew, still mooning over wife Rosa (Lucia Brawley), who left him years ago, is most concerned with renting the beach condos he’s just bought. Aha! An ideal love shack.

Private Fittings has the obligatory Southern California jokes and a gratuitous gay joke or two, and the cast expends an enormous amount of energy running around.

McAnuff loves to play with new toys. When the Mandell Weiss Theatre opened in the ‘80s, he tossed playing cards down from an overhead cat walk. McAnuff has wanted a black-box, reconfigurable third theater for years, and he finally has it. To show it off, he has characters walk around the balcony, and stage hands rollerskate while moving sets.

Hey, why not? There’s neither deep meaning nor brilliant script to this play. Why not just have fun with it?

Private Fittings runs through March 27 at the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre at La Jolla Playhouse. Shows Tues.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; Sun. at 7:00 p.m.; matinees Sat. and Sun. at 2:00 p.m. For tickets call (858) 550-1010 or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to their website.