By Joseph McDonough
Enquirer contributor

Cincinnati's New Edgecliff Theatre's Between the Lines is an interesting, if not riveting, quartet of short plays with a twist.

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As artistic director Michael Shooner describes in the program, "What ties these plays together is an identical script comprised of random, non sequitur phrases or words, which, taken by themselves would be utterly meaningless.

Four directors and a group of actors were then challenged to create four 15-minute dramatic scenarios using just the non-sequiturs (such as "something must be done," and "suddenly what was clear is dim") and their imaginations.

If this sounds like an extended acting class exercise, it plays like one, too.

The scenes get repetitive and run out of creative gas before their 15 minutes are up, particularly whenever the tempo slows down in an attempt to impose heavy meaning where there is none.

Still, there is fun to be had at seeing what each group created using the same words.

Director Elizabeth A. Harris gives us two dim-witted kids (Aretta Baumgartner and Kristen Clippard) playing video games.

Jane Goetzman comes up with a doctor (Lynn Meridith) and nurse (Lyle Benjamin) assisting a man with a medical decision (Mike Ward).

Clippard takes a turn at directing Harris and Josh Beshears as two crazed people searching for something in a huge pile of hay.

Most effective though is k. Jenny Jones' delightfully nonsensical rendering of an elderly couple (Havilah Brewster and Sam Lewis in masks) trying to assemble a computer accompanied by Frank Sinatra crooning.

Joseph McDonough

Between the Lines repeats 4 p.m. today, 7 p.m. Wednesday and 7 p.m Saturday at Sycamore Place at St. Xavier Park.