Beware inviting unflattering comparisons, proves the lesson of Design For Loving, a new play by Walt Vail presented by the Vagabond Acting Troupe at the Playground.

Vail credits Noel Coward, particularly his comedies Design For Living and Private Lives, as inspiration, but the association only highlights the vast distance between. Where Coward perfected a "high comedy" sense of brittle artificiality masking vital, engaging characters, Design For Loving only accomplishes the first part—beneath the mask, there's no one home.

In director Jackie Kay Knox's production, none of Vail's characters are particularly witty or human like Coward's, and the cast's desperate efforts at superficial Coward style prove grating. Doug Greene plays Allan Bontine, a gay man living with his mother Rose (Marcia Hepps), stuck in high camp at full volume. Coward's cocktail-sipping socialites become guzzling trailer trash: Rose swigs chablis after her morning run, and insults like "stick to your own affairs—you have enough of them" pass for wit.

Dana Mazzenga enters as Ariadne, a wide-eyed innocent looking to rent a room. She's soon revealed to be pregnant—nothing emerges subtly—and Allan inexplicably falls for her because her name reminds him of the Greek myth (Ariadne, Theseus, the Minotaur), which is announced as his obsession and thereafter forgotten. Rose wants Ariadne to marry Allan, perhaps just to hurt him later, but the child's father—Lance (Matthew Goldsborough), one of Allan's one-night-stands—pops in to complicate the situation, as does Greg Giovanni as (perhaps) Allan's long-lost father.

We know Design For Loving is set in 1971, not only thanks to Aileen McCulloch's glorious paisleys, bell-bottoms and mini-dresses, but because Rose announces the date on her first entrance; unfortunately, the rest of the play has nothing to do with period, place, or any perceivable point. There's much talk about love, but no real affection, and coarse sexual references without genuine attraction, and … oh, where's Coward when you really need him?

Christian Pedone's set—a white and black line-drawing idea of classic elegance, with walls defined by vertical strings—initially intrigues, but soon seems an unfortunate metaphor for the play: a flimsy, colorless construction.

Vagabond Acting Troupe's done some impressive work with company-created works (last year's Barrymore-nominated Art Of War) as well as Pinter, Beckett and Shakespeare; drawing-room comedy, whether genuine Coward or imitation, seems an unfortunate detour.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)