LA TIMES REVIEW

Theater 150 ends its current series of one-person shows this weekend, and although each has had its merits, Alan Aymie's "Child's Play" may be the most inviting and accessible.  Like his predecessors this season, Aymie writes from his own life.  A month after a brief romantic relationship ends, he learns that the former girlfriend is pregnant.  Somewhat taken aback by the news, if only because he's thought she was using birth control, Aymie is thrilled by the prospect of fatherhood and immediately offers to marry the woman.  Explaining that, among other qualities, he's "too hairy" and smells like garlic, she declines.  From that point, he embarks on a brief (45 minutes onstage) retelling of advice from several sources and recounting of his efforts to gain partial custody of the child, Emma.  The tender coming-together of father and child is the show's focus, and -- refreshingly -- Aymie doesn't paint the unnamed mother as a villain.  But at least as interesting is the writer-performer's telling of his time as a substitute teacher in an inner-city school.  Although it forms a substantial part of this piece, it might be expanded rewardingly into a show of its own.  Aymie and director James Brown-Orleans have come up with a presentation that's informative, powerful and energetic, touching, funny and humane -- in short everything a one-man show should be.