Acting, Direction Make for Lively 'Life' and 'God':

Forlorn Harvard souls sought answers to life's questions as they flocked to A Night of Life and God last week in the Harvard Union.

And while they might not have experienced religious epiphany, they certainly found comic relief from their midterms, these and job applications.

The evening consisted of two separate pieces: "Life," a compilation of five ten-minute plays by various playwrights, and "God," a one-act play by Woody Allen. Although the two plays made for a long evening, they complemented each other well, together addressing many of life's "big questions."

"Life" opens with "Attack of the Moral Fuzzies," by Nancy Beverly. Pam Shores, with her wide nervous eyes, convincingly portrays Beth Ann, a timid contestant on the game show of life. Mike Efron, as the sleazy host Ramon, along with Jane Sperling, as his enticing assistant Miss Lowenthal, make a hilarious team as they present increasingly troublesome moral dilemmas: whether to buy a Japanese or American car, whether to appropriate tax money toward college grants or child care, whether to fund liver transplants for children or Medicare supplements for the elderly.

When Beth Ann begins to worry about the car dealer she didn't pick, the unfunded college student and the child still awaiting the transplant, the hosts gloss over her anxiety. As they croon to her that they "feel so warm and wonderful...in one big happy family," they mock the illusion of the American dream.

"The Field," by Robert Sperra, brings up more serious issues. Jake (Will Minton) and Mickey (Brent Johnstone) are two soldiers who tell jokes to ease the pressure of working their way across a mine field. Minton and Johnstone strike just the right balance between comedy and tragedy, making the audience alternately titter with nervous laughter and cling to their seats in anticipation of doom.

"Marred Bliss," by Mark O'Donnell, portrays a couple about to be trapped in the institution of marriage. The script contains an innovative comedic twist: it is composed entirely of Freudian slips. The prissy Jane (Jane Sperling) and her luggish fiancee Dink (Ron Weiner) coo at each other about becoming "moan and woof" and their upcoming "hiney-moon" in "A Frantic City." Jane must reject her "old toy-friend" Jerry, played by the slouching, smooth-talking Brent Johnstone, as must Dink shun the advances of Pam Shores' provocative Alas, before the couple can properly appreciate "encaged" life.

All actors and actresses in this skit made their caricatures authentic and skillfully enunciated the unusual dialogue. Sperling particularly stood out for her impish smile and flirty but prudish body language.

"4 A.M. (Open All Night)," by Bob Krakower, approaches relationships from another stance: it emphasizes the chanciness of getting involved. The entire premise of looking for love at a diner in the wee hours of the morning is a bit hackneyed: "Sayin' hello is like taking life into your own hands, ya know...it scares me to death. "However, players like Vickie Hornobostel as the strongwilled "Woman" carry the script through its weaker moments.

"Eating Out," by Marcia Dixey, proves to be the only play that fails to produce any humor. The topic of eating disorders is an important one that must be addressed, but this skit seems inappropriately somber in the context of the whole show. The audience squirmed as they witnessed an anorexic (Vickie Hornobostel), a bulimic (Marlie Jacobs) and a former speed addict (Pam Shores) discussing their relationships with food.

Besides casting "Life" with versatile actors, Director Rebecca Murray kept the energy level high. She varied the pace of the one-acts appropriately, and the transitions between the plays worked smoothly. The technical aspects of the show were also executed with ease.

After pondering the moral decisions, war, marriage, relationships and eating disorders that characterize life on earth, the audience had a chance to look to the heavens.

In "God" they are transported back in time to ancient Athens, where Diabetes (Mike Efron) and Hepatitis (Andy Kuan) are trying to write an ending for their play. When the two toga-clad men encounter difficult philosophical problems--"Is freedom chaos?"--they call on the "audience" for help. To their rescue comes Doris Levine, a blonde, boppy philosophy student from Wellesley, played with convincing ditziness by Isabelle Hurtubise. In the course of the action other fatuous students are called to the stage: Lorenzo Miller (Arzhang Kamarei), the pompous playwright, Trichinosis (Joel Pulliam), another Greek who invents the ridiculous deus ex machina to save the play and a regal but spacy Queen (Elizabeth Price) who strolls in with a roast beef sandwich. Woody Allen himself even phones in a few times to give advice to his characters.

So many intertwining storylines unnecessarily complicate the plot of "God." And while co-directors Victor Chiu and Adam Hertzman often crowd the stage with too much action and too many characters, the action is still fast-paced and well coordinated. And the players more than compensate for the production's weaknesses.

As Diabetes, Efron steals the show with his clever timing, rich accents, witty facial expressions, and zany physical displays. In one particularly droll soliloquy, he flounders on his hands and knees, eyes pleading toward the sky, moaning "I'm tired, weary, sick...All around me men dying, war and misery, brother against brother."

Efron also delivers the play's memorable one-liners with Allen's own gawky, self-mocking style. "You idiot, you're fictional, she's Jewish," he warns Hepatitis of Doris. "You know what the children will be like?"

Also notable in her cameo is Jessie Cohen, who waltzes in as the sultry, Southern Blanche Dubois straight from A Streetcar Named Desire. "Not that Tennessee is not a very great writer," she drawls, "but honey--he dropped me right in the center of a nightmare."

Jonathan Fisher and Nicole Armenta also shine as Bob and Wendy Fate, two Hawaiian-shirt clad, camera carrying tourists on the vacation of life. They grin goofily as they play "tricks" on the rest of the cast, shaping destinies with hand buzzers and squirt guns.

"God" is self-consciously self-conscious. It pokes fun at absurdism, existentialism and drama itself. "It's bizarre, isn't it?" asks Hepatitis in a moment of revelation. "We're characters in a play and soon we're going to see my play...which is a play within a play and they're watching us...Not only is it metaphysical, it's stupid!"

The cathartic humor of "Life" and "God" thoroughly cleansed all those who made the pilgrimage to the Union. While the messages divined to them were a bit heavy-handed, they had witnessed the versatility of a group of rising young Harvard actors and actresses. And what's more, they were reminded, as the program quoted Agatha Christie, that "just to be alive is a grand thing."