(Enlarge) Joe Dunn as Dr. Wang shows Chuck (Alex Scally) the cosmetic surgery he wants to perform on Jeff (Adam Brooks) in “Turducken,” part of the ongoing Baltimore Playwrights Festival now at LeClerc Hall in the College of Notre Dame of Maryland through Aug. 2. (Photo by Katie Bateman)

However you slice it, "Turducken" is an odd duck. The title of Lisa Hodsoll's play refers to a dubious recipe that involves stuffing a duck and a chicken inside a turkey. This Baltimore Playwrights Festival entree, er, entry is only good for a few laughs in the Theatrical Mining Company production at the College of Notre Dame.

The unusual recipe is complemented by the quirky doctors and patients at a cosmetic surgery center. Dr. Martha (Joy Baldwin) and Dr. Wang (Joe Dunn) spend some of their time preparing the altered turkey for Thanksgiving, and the rest of their time treating patients whose bodies are being incompetently nipped and tucked.

There presumably is a thematic link between the treatment of fowl and human alike, but it's hard to say exactly what the playwright is cooking up here. Some of the play's characters have personalities that change in arbitrary ways, and it's not always certain where the play is headed through its numerous scene changes.

"Turducken" eventually does settle down into something resembling a plot. The administrative head of the clinic, Chuck Binder (Alex Scally), is kept busy with an unseen wife badgering him with phone calls; the two doctors complaining about conditions at the clinic; a pharmaceutical company representative, Gloria Goodee (Lyndsay Webb), who seductively puts her whole body into her work; and a loyal secretary, Stella Dora (Cristina Petrarca), whose secret love for him seems like it'll remain a secret.

Additional plot wrinkles include an upper-middle-aged woman, Mrs. Von Shvonz (Ann Marie Feild), angrily visiting the clinic to find out why the clinic seems to have lost the husband who went there for a minor procedure; a healthy woman who compulsively feigns illness at hospitals, Vivica Bog (Nancy Dall); and Jeff Holliday (Adam Brooks) and his wife, Brenda (Dana Woodson), a couple addicted to having cosmetic surgery done.

Their intersecting stories lead to chaotic complications, but it's difficult to know what you're supposed to make of all the zany activity. It's easy to laugh at the weird developments, but the entire play amounts to a strange situation that never fully develops into a satisfying story.

Most of the characters are so loosely tethered to reality that director Andrew Peters and the actors understandably go for broad performances that seem all the broader in this compact performance space. Accents and other character traits often change so abruptly that it makes you wonder whether such changes are scripted or matters of interpretation.

If the play sounds like a mess, at least it has a few choice ingredients. Jeff and Brenda Holliday are intriguing characters, because their endless quest for perfect bodies is alternately humorous and pathetic. What would it take to make them a happy couple? Are there issues that lie deeper than cosmetic surgery?

The unrequited love felt by Stella Dora for her boss is expressed in sharply written scenes whose farcical laughs are balanced by genuine pathos.

As Stella, Cristina Petrarca gives the one completely satisfying performance in this production. She is so into her character that you laugh at her, care for her, and are relieved to realize that this generally unsatisfying meal does have a few delicious side dishes.

"Turducken" runs through Aug. 2 in LeClerc Hall at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, at 4701 N. Charles St., in Baltimore. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $13 Friday, Saturday and Sunday, pay-what-you-can Thursday. Call 410-982-6979 or go to www.originalplays.com/tmc.

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