The Earle Ernst Lab Theatre at the University of Hawai'i is a place for experimentation, so it's necessary to give the benefit of doubt to its current short piece written and directed by Masters of Fine Arts candidate Rikki Jo Hickey. The production, scheduled for a short run in the 11 p.m. time slot, certainly leaves plenty of room for it.

"WHAT!" is a 30-minute muse on a dysfunctional young marriage. The exclamation point in the title clarifies that it is an expression of disbelief rather than a question, and the capital letters indicate urgency or outrage. There is some of that in the character of the Woman, but not enough to sustain the drama.

Instead, the script plays as though it might have been jotted down on the back of an envelope one evening while Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond sang "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on a never-ending sound loop. The dialogue is jerky and pedestrian, the action is filled with long pauses and pantomime, and the best wish for the marriage is that it may end quickly.

The Man makes his first entrance bringing a bunch of supermarket flowers, and the last scene has one of them roll over and turn out the light. Between those two images is a great deal of pleading and recrimination.

The Woman (Aya Ohara) best expresses her anger while folding laundry. Watching which clothes get folded and which get thrown on the floor tells us all we need to know about the relationship. Bitter and tired, she sees an unhelpful psychiatrist. Her body language, however, strongly suggests a vitamin deficiency.

The Man (Christopher Joseph Bates) is equally tired, frequently forgets things, and still continues to desire his wife for what she used to be instead of what she is now.

There is an unseen child who spends an inordinate amount of time at a friend's house, a parallel psychiatrist for the husband, and a well-meaning friend who drops in for dinner. Any dramatic point gets lost in the staging.

Perhaps the most remarkable element in Hickey's production is the way she uses the fluid potential offered by the Ernst black-box space.

There is a central playing area bordered on three sides by audience. The fourth side — typically used as the stage area — houses an unseen kitchen hidden by the stage curtain. Opposing corners contain a suggested bathroom and an unfinished window flanked by raw plywood sheets stacked carelessly to one side.

The design suggests that the couple's apartment is unfinished and pulling apart in the same manner as their marriage. Actors enter through the audience doorway. Although the living room and bedrooms share the center space, they are separated by an invisible wall. Any movement between them must take the long way around through the kitchen and backstage area to re-enter through side service doors.

The couple's only mutual move to the bedroom, however, is through a long, silent, tooth-brushing sequence.

When the light is finally turned off, the concluding hope is that when the playwright someday has something to say, the director will find a clearer and more economical way to say it.

"WHAT!" is preceded by an even shorter warm-up piece — Eugene Ionesco's "Learning to Walk" — a movement piece without words choreographed to the song "Flight Test" by The Flaming Lips.

Joseph T. Rozmiarek has been reviewing theater since 1973.