Four couples, three beds, a ruined dinner party and British reserve – what could be a better setup for comedy?

Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce plays through Nov. 19 at Moonlight Stage Productions’ Avo Playhouse, directed by Tracy Williams.

Actually, the title is misleading, implying as it does frantic motion and hanky-panky à la Feydeau. But neither is much in evidence here. Ayckbourn’s script is more revelatory of his rather dark notion of marriage, described by one critic as “little more than a pailful of cozily hissing snakes” than it is a door-slamming free-for-all farce.

The brilliant set by Marty Burnett consists of three bedrooms: the nicely appointed, modern one belonging to Nick (Thomas Hall) and Jan (Jillian Frost); the floral chintz number inhabited by the aging Ernest (Charlie Riendeau) and Delia (Joanne Kissinger); and the remodel-in-progress space of Malcolm (Greg Wittman) and Kate (Aimee Janelle Nelson). The odd couple (in more ways than one) consists of the hopelessly self-centered Trevor (Landon Vaughn) – son of Ernest and Delia – and his pouty, neurotic wife Susannah (Allegra Barley), who seems to make it a point to have a breakdown in everyone’s bathroom.

It’s party time at Malcolm and Kate’s place, and though it’s never explained why they invited the troublesome Trevor and Susannah, the outcome of this lapse of judgment is never in doubt. Trevor even has the bad taste to arrive early, so early that Kate is still running around in a towel.

In another bedroom, Jan dresses for the party, intending to leave ailing Nick abed with excruciating back problems, the pain not helped by knowledge that Jan and Trevor were once an item.

When Susannah arrives at the party, things go from bad to worse, the party ends prematurely and Malcolm and Kate are left with Trevor (Kate has inexplicably offered him a couch for the night).

After everyone’s hasty departure, Ernest and Delia settle down like – well, like roommates, Ernest reading to the quickly-snoring Delia, at least until Susannah shows up to boo-hoo on Delia’s shoulder.

Ayckbourn has been called Britain’s most successful living playwright, and Bedroom Farce is one reason – it had a good long initial run in London. But the play is three decades old now, and the comedy is wearing thin. Williams’ game cast gives it the old college try, but though Kissinger’s bewildered lament about current fashion in jeans with outside labels (“No one can really want to read a person’s bottom!”) rates a smile, there’s nothing screamingly funny or even original here. Hall’s Nick comes closest with his over-the-top wailing, and Trevor is very good at being obnoxious, but the whole just seems a tad dated.

Bedroom Farce plays through Nov. 19 at the Avo Playhouse in Vista. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (760) 724-2110 or visit www.vistixonline.com

Lee Blessing is at his best writing about political topics. His brilliant 1986 A Walk in the Woods examines the anatomy of Cold War era U.S.-Russian relations via a summit meeting; most of the play takes place on a park bench between representatives of those countries.

But difficult as Cold War politics were, they were a piece of cake compared to terrorism. Blessing’s Two Rooms, first produced in 1988 by La Jolla Playhouse, is a harrrowing excursion into the politics of terrorism – and what happens when politics and human tragedy intersect. Two Rooms plays through Dec. 1 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, directed by and featuring James Michael McCullock.

University professor Michael Wells (McCullock), kidnapped by Muslim terrorists in Beirut, sits in his cell, blindfolded and handcuffed, writing letters in his head to his wife Lainie (Nicole Friedmann). He has been there for three years.

Horrible as Michael’s situation is, Lainie arguably has it worse, at least psychologically. In an effort to feel closer to Michael, she has “cleansed” his office of furniture, repainted it and left it bare except for a thin cot-sized pad.

But it’s the torture of not knowing where or how Michael is that may break her. And if that weren’t enough, she must depend on starchy Dept. of State bureaucrat Ellen Van Oss (Connie DiGrazia), stingy with information, whose unenviable job is to placate without imparting any information that might embarrass the U.S. government. She also wants to keep Lainie from doing something that might do that.

Hot on the trail of the story is journalist Walker Harris (Matthew Joyce), who wants that exclusive but must overcome Lainie’s natural reluctance and Ellen’s warnings about talking to the press.

Lainie’s world becomes one of pressure, fear, hope (Ellen keeps telling her the most important thing is to maintain “cautious optimism”), despair and mostly the agony of not knowing.

OnStage Playhouse makes a valiant effort at this difficult play. McCullock acquits himself well as Michael, who doesn’t require a wide emotional palette. But the others could stand to turn up the emotional temperature of their performances. Friedmann’s Lainie fares best, especially in the second act when she lets go a bit. DiGrazia looks right as Ellen, but needs more starch. We should hate her and all the useless bureaucratic nonsense she stands for from the outset. And Joyce’s Walker needs to be hungrier for that story.

In the weeks after 9/11, Blessing received calls from five cities that wanted to stage the play, all asking him to update it. A week later, all called back to say revision was unnecessary. Two Rooms, sad to say, will likely still be relevant years from now.

Two Rooms plays through Dec. 1 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 422-7787 or visit http://www.onstageplayhouse.org/current.html.

You have to go through three security checks and a wand to get into the courtroom. You’re given a badge and the opportunity to volunteer to be a witness or a juror, or simply observe.

The case is U.S. v. President George W. Bush, being tried in absentia by the Military Tribunal of Universal Justice at Sledgehammer Theatre through Nov. 26. Todd Blakesley wrote, directed and stars in A Patriot Act: The Trial of George W. Bush.

Three counts are under consideration: malfeasance in office (lying, warrantless searches and failure to execute legislation; war crimes (violation of the Geneva Convention and unlawful invasion of the sovereign country of Iraq); and treason (using the U.S. armed forces for personal gain and that of his client base, causing unnecessary death). A jury is empanelled for each count.

Retired judge Dick Emmet serves as presiding judge, with Blakesley as magistrate. As this performance was KLSD night (the local station on which Air America is heard), talk show host Stacy Taylor began the night as a third judge, but was knocked off the bench by defense attorney Kaja Amado when she pointed out his talk show affiliation. Taylor later became a prosecution witness.

Tension and emotions run high around this defendant (the magistrate tells us Bush is in another location, watching on closed-circuit TV). The defense and prosecution, having an early go at each other, are stopped by the judge, who notes, “You’ll have plenty of time when you hit the talk show circuit to take a bite out of each other’s ass.”

The prosecution offers the familiar complaints: that Bush lied about WMDs; that the invasion was illegal given the lack of threat to the U.S.; the Geneva Convention is being violated in the treatment of prisoners. Treason is a charge heard less often.

The defense counters that not only are the charges “specious, immoral and illegal” but that, in fact, these proceedings are illegal in that a civilian cannot be tried in a military court.

One defense witness and one witness for the prosecution have been scripted; all others are volunteers. Therefore, the theatrical experience of this show will vary depending on audience participation. The night I saw it, a particularly convincing witness said she had talked with Abu Ghraib survivors in Jordan and they had relayed some disquieting facts about their treatment. Given the setup, she could have made it up, but her testimony did offer food for thought.

As a member of the press, I was allowed to observe jury deliberations. All three juries seemed to be taking their jobs quite seriously. None of them reached a unanimous verdict.

The jury trial is a bedrock of our system. A Patriot Act is a reminder of that fact and a fictionalized illustration of how it works. As trials often do, this one runs a little long by theater standards, but for me the time passed quickly. It would be instructive if Blakesley could take this show across the country and document the local response in each place.

Sledgehammer Theatre’s A Patriot Act: The Trial of George W. Bush plays through Nov. 26 at the Tenth Avenue Theatre, located at 930 Tenth Ave. Shows Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., as well as Sunday, Nov. 19, at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 26, at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 544-1484 or visit www.sledgehammer.org.

Riverdance, that worldwide phenom now in its 11th season, ends a six-day run at Civic Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 19.

Traditional Irish dance is the base, but Riverdance has evolved throughout the years to include Irish slants on other cultures and traditions.

This show includes flamenco, a corps of Russian dancers and a nod to Aaron Copland in a round dance-inspired number. My favorite is the show-stopping dance-off between a trio of Irish dancers and a couple of spectacular black tap dancers (Kelly Isaac and Corey Hutchins).

The narration, songs and costumes are a bit hokey, but show is definitely worth seeing for the energy, talent, hard work and goodwill that shines through.

Riverdance plays through Nov. 19 at Civic Theatre. Shows Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 6:00 p.m., with matinees Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and Sunday at 1:00 p.m. For tickets, call (619) 570-1100.