PLANE TALK

Here's a collection of brief, one-act plays set in airports and airplanes, and while some of the mostly comic pieces are first-class in terms of comic sensibility and imagination, others are unevenly paced, narratively slight and turbulently executed. The most amusing of the plays are those that most explicitly make the connection between a stay at an airport terminal and a trip to hell itself. For instance, in Julianne Homokay's delightful "Diane Miller, Please Press '9' on the Red Courtesy Phone," a harassed traveler (a lovely, prissy Chera Holland) discovers the satanic reason for the hellish treatment she's enduring in an airport waiting room. In Mike Rothschild's amusing "Don't Believe the Truth," a paranoid housewife (Jennie Floyd) confronts a spooky airport security guard about X-Files-like rumors of a terrifying conspiracy, which may or may not be true. As a venomous flight attendant who appears in a couple of the vignettes, Mackenzie English perfectly assays the terrifying professional snap-on smile. T.U. Studios, 10943 Camarillo St., N. Hlywd.; Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Feb. 26. (800) 838-3006, skypilottheatre.com. (Paul Birchall)