"The Ugly One' at Walnut's Studio 3

Are you an egotist because you love yourself, or are you merely self-delusional? When we look into a mirror, do we see what others wish to see, or what we want to see? And which is the illusion?

Beauty may be only skin deep and all that, but this 90-minute play by the German dramatist Marius Von Mayenburg cuts to the bone.

Lette (Ben Dibble) is a genius engineer whose new invention is to be touted at a Los Angeles convention. Lette assumes he'll present his own work. But his boss, Scheffler (Bill Van Horn) decides instead to send Lette's assistant, Karlmann (Noah Mazaika), to the land of starlets, Botox and sunshine.

Why? Because, as Scheffler informs the devastated Lette, "You're plain ugly…I can't believe no one has ever told you this before."

Lette's wife, Fanny, (Sarah Mazaika), tells him that she loves him because he's smart. Lette seeks solace from a plastic surgeon (Scheffler with a scalpel), who promises he can only do what he does but has never been asked to do so much with such inferior material.

Like Benny Hill

Up until this point, The Ugly One plays itself as straight comedy, but the operating room scene is something out of a Benny Hill Show slapstick routine— either you love it or (like me) you find it mildly annoying.

Resurrected by Scheffler the doctor, Lette and his exquisite face head for La La land and the beautiful people where, because he is the fairest of them all, he becomes a star.

There he is courted by a wealthy widow and her just as courtable son (in the persona of Fanny and Karlmann).

All of this is vaguely reminiscent of a throwaway Beckett drama. But if you like Beckett, you'll love it (or if you're like me, you'll find it mildly annoying).

In any case, what makes this drama speed along is its four-person cast, more than adequately directed by the Walnut's veteran director, Debi Marucci, who possesses a deft talent for timing. Irritating or not, The Ugly One is always entertaining.

The face you deserve

We'll never know if Lette was truly as ugly as his boss and wife said he was, or if he was ever as gorgeous as the doctor made him. We do perceive that Lette's makeover redefines his ego, forcing his wife to distinguish herself and his boss to move on.

In the end, each face gets what he deserves. Von Mayenburg tries in his happy Teutonic way to deal with these issues. How much we go along with his theory of relativity depends on how much we go along with his sense of humor.

So, are we how other people define us? Only if you let them, says Von Mayenburg.