By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Gen-X gets a nod from Ensemble Theatre with a short run (through Saturday) of The Credeaux Canvas, in its Off-Center series. Credeaux is a sort of Three Days of Rain wannabe that combines a romantic triangle and a human mystery at the depth of Seinfeld, if Jerry and friends were all failed artists.

Winston (Mike DiSalvo) is a painter who has a gift for referencing - and even outright copying - the work of great artists and no ability to create his own. At the moment, he is obsessed with the obscure Jean Paul Credeaux, due to be rediscovered by the art world.

His roommate Jamie (Andrew Burkhart) is a newly disinherited rich kid whose primary abilities are scamming and flirting. Jamie's girlfriend is Amelia (Carrie Ragsdale), an undiscovered singer and unemployed waitress. Either way, she's broke.

What you have here, along with a potential romantic triangle, is a recipe for art fraud.

Jamie's plan is to get some fast money by selling a newly discovered Credeaux nude to rich old Tess (Dale Hodges), whom he dismisses as having more money than brains or taste.

Winston and Amelia fall in with the plot.

Director M. Patrick Deavy and company have a jolly time with this stage contrivance. This is the second Off-Center success for Mr. Deavy, who helmed Bash last season. Here's hoping there are bigger jobs ahead.

Playwright Keith Bunin suffers from the same malady as Winston - his work feels referential, derivative.

He has a clever idea in Credeaux, with savvy observations about how people misread each other because even when we know better, we see what we want to see. (The script is strewn with clues of what's to come, which is fair-minded of him.)

But Mr. Bunin brings nothing new to the table, his dialogue isn't big enough for the theater, it's what you'd overhear at the mall. His characters are merely sketched in, most likely because he wants to make a mystery of Credeaux, and he doesn't want to tip his hand by letting us know them too well.

The happiest audiences will be those who don't go to theater and therefore have never seen anything like it.

Ms. Ragsdale and Mr. DiSalvo, both appealing, have one of those heart-to-hearts that could take place in a booth at Frisch's, but instead they're both naked in Winston's mess of a studio, expertly realized by resident designer Brian Mehring.

Credeaux most comes to life when Mr. Burkhart and Ms. Hodges are on the scene. Mr. Burkhart is terrific as the kind of despicable character that James Spader would play in the movie version.

Ms. Hodges demonstrates how a wonderful actor can exhume dead lines and turn them into laughs.

The Credeaux Canvas, through Saturday, Ensemble Theatre, 1127 Vine St., 421-3555.

E-mail jdemaline@enquirer.com