Love Hurts

David Williams, City Weekly

The cozy confines of the tiny Shelterbelt Theatre serve as the perfect setting for lovers to cuddle in their seats for the sixth-annual run of 10 original one-act plays that explore themes of romance in “From Shelterbelt With Love 6,” showing now through Valentine’s Day on the venerable stage at 33rd and California streets.

Ranging, as usual, from the sublime to the sordid, this year’s crop of scenes offers everything from a sentient stuffed toy bent on barring a suitor from elbowing his way onto his turf to a “Snakes on a Plane” spoof that introduces weasels on the Fremont Dinner Train.

Fremont is, after all, “the Italy of Nebraska.” So we are told by the proud but decidedly delusional crew of the dinner train as competing conspiracies of carnage among quarrelling lovers cancel each other out in this clever piece written by Nick Zadina.

Watch for Andy Neiss in his memorable role of Flopsy Bunny in Nora Vetter’s “A Bunny Tale” and as Telephone Bob in William Campbell’s piece of the same name.

Jane (Jennifer McGill) adores her cuddly Flopsy, and the plush toy has been her constant companion since childhood. Flopsy’s true nature (potty-mouthed, demented, lecherous, alcoholic) is revealed only to Guy (Jeremy Johnson), Jane’s flabbergasted fiancé. “Hands off the merchandise, Bub. I’ve had a sweet thing going for 20 years now,” Flopsy ominously hisses at the incredulous interloper.

The rubber-faced Niess chuckled when I asked him about the inspiration for Flopsy’s screwed-up eyes and screwed-down mouth (think of the banjo-playing cretin in “Deliverance”). “I guess it just goes back to the old playground game of who could make the best zombie face,” he beamed.

Niess also shines as the unflappable Telephone Bob, whose service exists to offer intermediary translations in telephone calls so that each party hears only what they want to hear as he helps thaw the icy relationship between a mother and daughter.

In one of the two bittersweet pieces that form bookends to surround the otherwise laugh-laden hilarity of this show, Anna Rebecca Kunkel dazzles as Sarah, an aging wife who is compelled to confess a sexual indiscretion that happened at camp. Her husband’s shrug of the shoulders seems all too natural until we learn that the camp in question is the very elder hostel that they are currently visiting, the object of her desire was an octogenarian, and the dirty deed happened just last week. Kunkel also plays the disagreeable mom in “Telephone Bob,” but it is in this more dramatic clime that she really blossoms, just as she did in last year’s award-worthy take on Sarraghina in the Little Apple production of the Fellini-esque “Nine.”

Sadly, “ugh” is all I can say for the filler pieces called “Prehistoric Dating (Parts 1 through 4),” for “ugh” typifies not only the inane caveman lingo but also my reaction to the sort of tired schlock that I thought died four decades ago when “Laugh-In” went off the air.

But a couple bumps in the road can’t suppress smart writing and a talented cast, as this year’s run of the popular show is sure to leave you smiling.