Hollywood hits There’s lots to like about Gizmo Love BY IRIS FANGER
	Gizmo Love By John Kolvenbach. Directed by Sam Weisman. Set by Dan Joy. Costumes by Crystal Zinn. Lighting by Christopher Ostrom. Sound by David Wilson. With Pedro Pascal, John Pleshette, Jim Frangione, and Jason Catalano. At Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater through September 4.

Men bonding is the chief concern of Gizmo Love, this time in fantasyland/Hollywood, where ordinary human emotions are kicked into outsize reactions motivated by self-defense, self-pity, and greed. Although we’ve seen the milieu before, in films and dramas that range from Sunset Boulevard to The Player, John Kolvenbach seems to have found an authoritative voice, if not a totally satisfactory end, for a play that owes as much to the dialogue of David Mamet and the theme of Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit as to the ambiguity of Harold Pinter.

The world premiere of Gizmo Love at Wellfleet Harbor Summer Theater is set in a dingy office of cinderblock construction furnished with leftovers including a desk and some random chairs plus a frieze of faded images depicting long-gone stars of the silver screen. As designed by Dan Joy, the setting delivers a powerful subtext about rooms that can not only imprison but also reflect the psyches of their inhabitants.

This particular space has been assigned to Ralph, a 26-year-old writer who’s just sold his first script to a producer. He’s joined by Manny, a much older script doctor who’s been sent to help with — or take over — the rewrite. As poignantly portrayed by Pedro Pascal, Ralph is an innocent — wide-eyed, vulnerable, and so invested in his story that his life depends upon it. In contrast, John Pleshette makes Manny into a motormouth scarred by years of the battle for recognition and respect that passes for success in La La Land. He explains to Ralph that he’s in it for the money, but beneath the foul-talking exterior, he’s as troubled as the younger man. When the pair make a connection based on Ralph’s cryptic cries for help and Manny’s need for acceptance by another human being, they’re both transformed.

Then there are the two gangsters, Max and Thomas (Jim Frangione and Jason Catalano), who’re there to make sure the writers keep working. By the second act, Ralph has been sidelined by Max, who takes on the imaginative task with an amusing fervor given that the "hits" he’s dealt in never graced a marquee. The most powerful figure in the play never appears on stage but delivers messages by telephone; the funniest bits are the characters’ reactions every time the phone rings with another directive from on high. Only a writer held hold hostage by the opinions of an editor can appreciate the conflicting emotions felt by Ralph and Manny when they’re being judged on their work and found wanting. Do they stick to their beliefs or cave in with changes because they’re desperate for validation? Their waffling is not a pretty sight.

Kolvenbach writes dialogue that sounds real, but the situation becomes increasingly abstract as the action unfolds in two short acts. The problem comes in the last five minutes, which are unbelievable, even for Tinseltown. At Wellfleet, however, the play is directed with a sure hand by Sam Weisman, who has a string of film and television credits on his résumé. He brings the two central characters to vivid life, and he invests the production with visual sophistication. The result is a play to see and savor from a dramatist new to New England.