almostanevening2 The Coen Brothers, even when it’s just one of them, are always worth checking out. I mean, you make Miller’s Crossing, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, even if I’ve never been able to sit through The Big Lebowski, I’m checking your shit out. For life.

Ethan Coen says the name of his 2009 collection of three short plays—Almost an Evening—comes from “hear[ing] a parting theatergoer complain it had been ‘not even almost an evening.’” Coen’s rejoinder to us: “I take some pride in my work, and together these plays do make up almost an evening—I don’t care what anyone says.”

And that’s just about right. What Coen does with this trio is feed us some lite fare—not an attempt at a Coenesque repast, just some hors d’oeuvres with a pleasant and faintly familiar flavor.

Even in this contextualization, the first two pieces, “Waiting” and “Four Benches,” are quite clearly appetizers. “Waiting,” a long look-in on an afterlifer’s wait to move on to heaven, is basically one predictable joke played out three or four times, with a cute twist in the end. If it works, it’s in the details. Credit Jason Weissbrod as the spirit in suspension for giving it his all. As time goes on, we can see it on him. I’m afraid for his blood pressure—Weissbrod’s, I mean.

“Four Benches” starts off as funny almost in spite of itself, thanks to Paul Knox’s voice in the darkness (you’ll walk out trying to say “my face” like he does) as a cloak-and-dagger sort of British gent who has an experience that gets him questioning his life choices. Jessica Variz plays his cohort as she plays everything: with perfect timing. But here, again, it’s the details that do the heavy lifting, because the one-joke finale isn’t much. almost-2

Finally, with “The Debate,” Coen gives us something a little more substantial. Lights up on Knox in flowing white robe and beard as he speaks of the Ten Commandments, as in command, as in His command. He’s God, and he’s fucking pissed off with our effete ethos. The writing is funny, and Knox fucking kills. Then comes a deity with a difference, again well written by Coen and played pitch-perfect by Matt Anderson, whose self-help lecture-circuit spiel is so smooth it makes you forget this is theatre and think you’re at some seminar. So funny.

It would be wrong to reveal what transpires. Let’s just say that of the three courses on tonight’s menu, “The Debate” has the most fillingly developed idea.

No, you’re not going to take away much from seeing Almost an Evening. But sometimes all you need is a pleasant snack. This is what Ethan Coen has thrown together, and the Garage Theatre serve it up nicely. Eat it, pal.

ALMOST AN EVENING THE GARAGE THEATRE • 251 E 7TH ST (JUST OFF LONG BEACH BLVD) • LONG BEACH 90813 • 562.433.8337 THEGARAGETHEATRE.ORG (Oh, look at the snazzy new Website. Excuse me, Miss Fancy Pants.) • THURS-SAT 8PM • $18; $15 FOR STUDENTS & SENIORS • THROUGH MAR 26TH