Amy thinks love conquers all, which is about as muddle-headed as some of the opinions held by other characters in David Hare’s play at North Coast Repertory Theatre through July 3.

The script suffers from excess – too many topics, too many opinions, too many directions – to make a coherent whole (mother-daughter relationships, the uselessness of art criticism, the paucity of good women’s roles in theater, the conflict between image and the word – and that’s just for starters), but spectacular acting by Rosina Reynolds, Dagmar Krause Fields, Brendan Ford and Amanda Sitton makes this overstuffed play worth seeing.

Amy’s View plays through July 3 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. Shows Thurs.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; Sun. at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m.; select performances Wed. at 8:00 p.m. and Sat. at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (858) 481-1055, or toll-free at (888) 776-6278.

“Only the losers really want to win,” says Olympic also-ran Cheryl Chan (Jyl Kaneshiro), and everyone within earshot knows she doesn’t believe that any more than we do.

Cheryl, you see, was humiliated by three figure skating falls and had to settle for the bronze medal; to work out her anger, she’s now waving a gun at the trio of captives in a San Diego diner and spouting an endless stream of most unladylike expletives.

Sledgehammer Theatre’s world premiere of ensemble member Ruff Yeager’s Bronze asks us to consider the cult of public humiliation in contemporary American society (check your local TV listings) and ponder how much lower we can go. The script needs some structural work, but the production boasts fine performances by Kaneshiro, Mark Broadnax, John Martin, Kim Strassburger and Geoffrey Yeager.

Bronze plays through July 3 at St. Cecilia’s Playhouse downtown. Shows Thurs.-Sat. at 8:00 p.m.; matinee Sun. at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 544-1484.