This whimsical property of existence was explored in five little vignettes presented by the Repertory Actors Workshop at Theatre Off Jackson last weekend.

The first vignette scrutinized the real meaning behind small talk between two people who meet at a party. The vignette follows all the possible timelines that could have happened to this couple, had the timing been right, or if the timing had been all loused up. The results are hilarious.

In "The Philadelphia," two men sit in a restaurant, discussing how the one has had a reall bad day. The other man tells him, "you're in a Philadelphia," meaning he's having a day resembling all the worst properties of Philadelphia. Thus explained, the fisrt man's day improves, but the other man, who thought he was in "an L.A.," finds he too is having a "Philadelphia" and that everything he ignored, thinking it ti be irrelevant, is now critically important. "The Philadelphia" is a fall-out-your-chair comedy that must be seen to be appreciated,

The other two, "A Singular Kind of Guy," and "Seven Menus" are a bit more serious, exploring the vagaries of the dating and mating scene through a monologue and a longer piece ("Menus") that is at times sharply humorous and at times heart wrenching.

The final piece, "Sure Thing," is the piece de resistance of the whole show and well worth waiting for. It zeroes in on the timing involved in making just the right connections with a new potential partner, and explores all the possibilities in a rapid-fire delivery that will have you holding your side from laughing so hard.

This and a finale dance number to the music of Riverdance is sure to bring tears of joy to the eyes of many. In fact, all of the little "between dances" are funny, based as they are on famous musical pieces.

So, if you didn't see it last weekend, you still can at the Naked Fringe, which kicks off this week and goes for the next week at various locations around town.