Catalyst's 'Swimming': Fin and Dandy

"Swimming in the Shallows" is a glib and breezy confection -- a live-action comic strip with cheeky, gay bite. Playwright Adam Bock's psychological condition of choice is neurosis and his subject is attachments: How we amass a network of friends and lovers like so many collectibles and then, once they're in our lives, we are not quite sure how to handle them.

Catalyst Theater and director Scott Fortier are introducing the Canadian-born, San Francisco-based Bock to Washington audiences, and the company's production proves to be a giddy little welcome-to-the-neighborhood. Fortier, Catalyst's artistic director, treats the material with all the tartness it requires, so that when things take a turn for the broadly absurd, the effect is that of a winking sort of tease.

You see, it transpires over the course of the 75-minute comedy that Nick (Christopher Janson) -- who tends to bed men so quickly that relationships end before they can begin -- might have finally found his soul mate. It really isn't giving the evening away to reveal that the source of his fantasies lives not in a loft in the rapidly chic-ifying part of town but in the local aquarium.

As embodied by the suave Patrick Bussink, the Shark in the tank is a fellow traveler. Like Nick, he is a creature of appetite, perpetually in motion and forever in search of the next piece of flesh. (And in contrast to the domesticated object of desire in Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?," the human passion on this occasion is requited.)

One of the amusing conceits of "Swimming in the Shallows" is that if Nick is indeed that type of deluded, emotionally unavailable guy who cannot understand why he's still alone, he might be giving a lot of men a break by seeking Mr. Right in the ranks of another species.

What saves Bock's play from terminal dating-comedy cuteness, though, is the brisk and witty ways he stitches together the stories of Nick's "Jaws"-style infatuation with those of other couples in the character's orbit. Donna (September Marie Fortier), a tour guide at the aquarium, is locked in an argumentative romance with Carla Carla (Adrienne Nelson), who is close friends with Barbara (Ellen Young), a middle-aged woman veering toward Buddhism in an effort to shed earthly things, including her dull marriage to Bob (Scott Bailey).

Bock is happy to let "Swimming in the Shallows" flow in any direction his characters seem to require, which imbues the piece with a genial unpredictability.

If, for instance, Barbara needs to create for us a dream sequence in the cereal aisle of a Rhode Island supermarket, that's fine. So, too, is it okay if the tangential issue of Donna's attempts to quit smoking is recounted in a quick series of short scenes.

The patience Bock demonstrates for his characters' quirks is reflected in how the characters accept each other's behavior. After Nick declares his love for the shark, one of his friends replies: "You're not in love with a shark. You have a crush on a shark."

The vignettes remind you at times of "Peanuts," and the way that Charles Schulz could boil down a world of complex relationship issues to a few panels. The play, as a result, is a good fit for Catalyst's compact black-box space on Capitol Hill. Director Fortier's ear is attuned to the hairpin turns in Bock's dialogue, and so the jokes never announce themselves. As in Schulz's strip, the lines often evince a poppin'-fresh personality all their own.

On the technical level, however, the production could stand a tweak or two, especially when the music cranks up and the actors are called upon to show off their skills at physical comedy. An allusion to "Dirty Dancing" is funny, but the actors could be looser with the parody. Conversely, Bock's lines have to be delivered with absolute crispness; it's a particularly unforgiving piece for an actor who drops one.

The Catalyst cast romps engagingly on a set by Tom Donahue with aptly aquatic undertones. Nelson is particularly convincing as an earthy New Englander conflicted on the question of matrimony. For carnivorous fun, though, it's hard not to be upstaged by an actor in a wet suit and dorsal fin.

Swimming in the Shallows, by Adam Bock. Directed by Scott Fortier. Costumes, Kathleen Geldard; lighting, Brian S. Allard; sound, David Lamont Wilson. About 75 minutes. Through March 8 at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, 545 Seventh St. SE. Call 800-494-TIXS or visit http://www.catalysttheater.org.