`MESS' OFFERS 10 WINDOWS INTO PLAYWRIGHT'S MIND.

Byline: Paul Hodgins Orange County Register

Playwright Christopher Durang likes to dig around in that dangerous no man's land between comedy and pain. It's an attractive but slippery piece of real estate, and it has been visited by the best, including Durang's idols Edward Albee and Eugene Ionesco.

``A Mess of Plays by Chris Durang,'' making its world premiere on South Coast Repertory's Second Stage, features 10 of his playlets and skits. Some succeed hilariously; others fizzle or drag on too long.

Durang is at his wicked best when skewering religious hypocrisy, parodying sacred American theater classics or exposing our own cruelty as an audience.

In ``Cardinal O'Connor,'' Hal Landon Jr.'s affable but unbending Catholic authority figure explains why, under certain circumstances, using birth control is a bigger sin than killing someone. (The Catholic church, as any fan of ``Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You'' knows, is prime comic material for Durang). It's like listening to Fred MacMurray explain why you shouldn't steal hotel towels.

In ``For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls,'' a clever gender-bending spoof of ``The Glass Menagerie,'' Durang has fun deconstructing an American classic. As

Lawrence, Amanda's wimpy, hypochondriacal son, Robert Patrick Benedict plays a whiny Laura wanna-be. Lawrence is a real underachiever: Instead of glass animals, he collects cocktail stirrers. The gentleman caller is turned into a feminine caller - Ginny (Jodi Thelen), a back-slapping, loud-talking lesbian who can't hear a thing.

In ``Woman Stand-up,'' Durang's most daring piece, Thelen plays a sad, self-hating woman who stammers through a mean-spirited and completely unfunny comedy routine, asking plaintively for her recorded laugh track when her confidence flags. It makes you question your humor ethics: Are you amused by her pain and ineptitude, or unconsciously sucked into laughing to be helpful to the character?

Durang's talents serve him less ably in skits that deal with fractured family dynamics. ``John and Mary Doe,'' ``Nina in the Morning'' and ``Naomi in the Living Room,'' though stylistically different, all deal with internecine family warfare, and each overstays its welcome after its family-is-hell points are made.

Still, it's a worthwhile evening, made more pleasurable by cast members who attack their sometimes ridiculous roles with enthusiasm.

THE FACTS

The show: ``A Mess of Plays by Chris Durang.''

Where: South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays; through May 26.

Running time: Two hours, 15 minutes; one intermission.

Tickets: $26 to $36, available by calling [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars.