A Bumpy but Earnest Ride in This Return to ‘The Twilight Zone’

Given that the late Rod Serling’s teleplays for “The Twilight Zone” are based in parabolic concerns broader than the Cold War-era issues they originally addressed, it seems logical they might prove relevant to the terror-ridden present, even while standing on their considerable literary merits. This reasoning propels the stage adaptation of two vintage episodes now playing the El Portal Circle Theatre in a joint presentation by 4Letter Entertainment and the Company Rep.

Submitted for your consideration: “The Odyssey of Flight 33” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” each a celebrated example of Serling’s contributions to his classic science-fiction anthology series. Serling’s unerringly ironic, humanistic worldview retains its prescient vitality, transcending era and cultural context. This quality of impudent imagination surely accounts for the series’ enduring power in syndication, even beyond the twists of plot or various fantastic elements. Such inherent trenchancy of theme dominates “Flight 33,” one of Serling’s several airplane exercises, here concerning a commercial airline crew struggling to maintain rational response to an unimaginable mid-flight occurrence. And “Maple Street,” a contender for Serling’s finest work, feels acutely topical in its examination of personality profiling borne of community paranoia.

However, while the aptness of Serling’s dimension of the mind is intact, the dimensions of sight and sound are more dubious, though the earnest intent of everyone involved is obvious. The execution and concept present a doggedly makeshift journey, whose boundaries seem less those of imagination than of repertory exigencies and the midnight collegiate circuit. The high-ceilinged venue is one liability, its open thrust configuration not exactly conducive to emotional intimacy or claustrophobic intensity. Furthermore, the show plays on the miniature golf course setting for Company Rep’s “Criminal Minds,” and the giant brontosaurus alone distracts throughout.

Such environmental challenges could be turned into assets by imaginative staging. But director Walter Koenig is operating from “The Outer Limits,” the erratic tempo and constantly shifting blockage of sight lines especially irritating. Jeremy L. Rolla’s lighting, Paca Thomas’ sound and Zale Morris’ costumes are resourceful, though they can’t compensate. Nor can the ensemble, going through hieratic paces with wan efficiency.

While Dwayne Rider admirably avoids mimicking Serling, his narrator is so tenuously maneuvered as to blur his function. Similar hazards plague Ricco Ross’ pilot, Mark Costello’s neighborhood vigilante, and so on through the cast list.

In fairness, the most entitled approach couldn’t sustain the joviality of emcee Ken Pringle, whose audience participation tactics are a severe miscalculation, jettisoning the last vestiges of proper mood. Cultists may disregard these reservations, even as a more suitably black-box reading of, say, “The Obsolete Man” or “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” seems advisable for future excursions.

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“The Twilight Zone,” El Portal Center Circle Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 11 p.m. Ends July 6. $10. (818) 628-1021.Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.