This ‘Obituary’ All but Writes Itself

“You either stumble into monotony or you race from it,” declares a mortally wounded big-game hunter preparing his testimonial in “‘A Hunter’s Obituary” at Theatre West.

My advice: Start your engines.

Whatever alternate reality Jason McGaffey’s ill-conceived mystery-comedy was intended to depict, it has little overlap with the one most of us inhabit. Don’t even try to ponder how a small Adirondacks community could sport two full-time obit writers (Debra Henri, Anthony Battelle) and a third freelancer (Kathy Bell Denton), all locked in cutthroat competition for the lucrative life story of the dying Fernunkle (David Starwalt).

In a painfully extended skit saddled with misplaced cleverness, flashbacks trace the exploits of this bare-chested, machismo stereotype from his sojourn with tropical Pygmies to the Arctic ice floes of the Inuits. As the search for the identity of Fernunkle’s assassin intersects the pursuit of his continually disappearing body, arbitrary puns and intellectual conundrums clash uneasily with exaggerated slapstick. Larry Travis’ staging never brings these disparate elements into coherent focus.

Condolences are due an energetic cast (also including Elizabeth Barrett, Douglas Gabrielle and Richard Tatum), who valiantly labor to resuscitate this material without much success.

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* “A Hunter’s Obituary,” Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends April 19. $15. (323) 851-7977. Running time:1 hour, 50 minutes.