NEED TO KNOW …Los Angeles

   After having once lived in a rent stabilized NYC apartment I totally get it. You have neighbors, some weird, some adorable, and some even are both. In this truly delightful look at what it means to have a paper-thin wall dividing you from heaven knows who, or what, we meet a lovely young couple who are trying to work out their creative and amorous lives by relocating from the West Coast to the Big Apple. Then, yikes, they happen to have a truly strange next-door neighbor. 

Or is he really so strange? Isn’t he rather a darling? Is that a sense of humor and a compassion for mankind disguised as a dork? You will have to go and see for yourself. Just be glad to know this NO EXIT has a happier conclusion than Sartre's grim tale.

Playwright Jonathan Caren takes a delight in revealing there might be a dork inside each of us, only some are more disguised than others. There is fish-loving Lilly (Corryn Cummins) with a bad case of writers block; macho Silicon Valley guy Steven (Lucas Near-Verbrugghe) teetering on the brink of creative despair, and into their midst comes lumbering giant Mark (Tim Cummings) clutching a manuscript and a loving if vengeful heart.

Under Bart DeLorenzo’s sparkling direction we are joyfully drawn into their lives. The artfully done double apartment set is by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, lit by Chu-Hsuan Chang, with sound by John Zalewski. Costumes by E.B. Brooks.

At Rogue Machine, 5041 Pico Blvd, LA, through Dec. 13. Tickets: 855-585-5185 or www.roguemachinetheatre.com

 Photos by John Perrin Flynn