Indoor/Outdoor

The Colony Theatre Company
555 N. Third St., Burbank
Through Sept. 18
Thursday-Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Tickets: $30-$40
(818) 558-7000
www.ColonyTheatre.org

The folks at the storied Colony Theatre Company deserve much better than Indoor/Outdoor, the cloying, extended sketch that is currently receiving its West Coast premiere at the Burbank theater. Kenny Finkle's featherweight play about a cat named Samantha purports to raise important questions about relationships and life, but the primary question raised by this treacly, achingly-overwritten piece is how did it ever make it into the Colony's season?

Samantha, played by Tessa Thompson in casual "human" clothes, narrates her own story for us. She is adopted at an animal shelter by Shuman, a needy and nerdy Web designer who cries easily. When communication problems ensue, Shuman mistakes Samantha's unhappiness for illness and takes her to the vet, where the wacky assistant, Matilda, practices her burgeoning skills as a cat therapist, claiming she can speak "cat." Back at home, Samantha spots Oscar -- a cool alley cat -- outside the window, and has an identity crisis, wondering if she belongs indoors or out. With more false endings than a cat has lives, the play ends up crossing all lines of acceptable sentimentality and tries to tell us about the meaning of life.

What makes Indoor/Outdoor particularly painful is watching the cast's considerable talents try to wring truth and humor from Finkle's one-note script stretched out over two long hours with an unnecessary intermission. Jeff Marlow's Shuman is firmly grounded in reality, yet delightfully silly and touchingly funny. Shana Wride is clearly a gifted comedienne, bringing original humor even to a painfully long cat therapy scene.

Louis Lotorto's Oscar is so physically adept and emotionally present, it is like watching Pavarotti being forced to sing "Skip to My Lou." Unfortunately Tessa Thompson is saddled with endless, irritatingly self-aware narration, so her charming presence loses its appeal quickly.

Finkle's program notes put it best. "I thought a play about a cat was a very, very, very bad idea," he reveals. "I decided that maybe I should try to write a ten-minute play based on the idea -- get it out of the way and get to my Ôimportant' play." Sound advice. -- Christopher Cappiello