STAGE REVIEWS / OPEN FESTIVAL : Comedy of Female Co-Dependency

Sometimes the idea behind a play is too well shaped for the drama to be quite real. It’s an alluring flaw--like having physical features that are too even for your own good.

Take “Sally and Marsha.” Co-dependency doesn’t usually free people from their problems but in this two-woman comedy mutual dependence is a balm.

“Co-dependency: Can it be all bad?” asked psychologist Marilyn Ruman at a post-show discussion at Theatre West. Women love this play and with reason. Sybille Pearson is writing about female friendship, and she has a knack for capturing how women talk about husbands and sex and other things.

The actresses, under Helen Murray’s direction, are so flavorful they almost obscure the sense of calculation: the scorching one liners, the curious absence of husbands and children (over two acts and seven months!) and the predictable sparring.

Ursula Martin’s tall and loopy Sally, a chirping homemaker into self-denial, and Joanna Lipari’s squat and literary Marsha, a neurotic Jew, are touching and funny. One hellish fight in the jumbled Gotham apartment is electric. But there’s something by-the-numbers in this theatrical tennis match.

At 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m., in repertory with “Benchwarmers,” through Oct. 7. $12.50. (213) 851-7977.