By Jordan Hall. Directed by Katrina Dunn. Produced by Touchstone Theatre, in association with Playwrights Theatre Centre and the Firehall Arts Centre. At the Firehall Arts Centre on Friday, June 3. Continues until June 11

There are a whole bunch of ideas and there are some great lines in How to Survive an Apocalypse—but they don’t add up to a coherent comedy.

When the lifestyle magazine that she’s running starts to tank, Jen is forced to submit to a consultant named Bruce, who is a survivalist. Under Bruce’s influence, Jen decides that she should change the magazine’s name from Bon Vie to Sur Vivre. Although she is married to the sweet—and unemployed—Tim, Jen must also decide whether or not she’s going to succumb to the sexual attraction of Bruce’s macho ruthlessness. (Bruce doesn’t believe in love and he kills his own meat for dinner.) Mixing things up a bit, Jen sets Bruce up with her recently separated friend, Abby, who is a failed trophy wife.

Talking about the rebranding of a magazine provides an awkward and unrewarding approach to the issues of survivalism. In Act 1, the play ping-pongs from one urban scene to another. In Act 2, it finally settles down for a bit—and finds more sustained focus and resonance—when the quartet goes camping.

Even more disappointingly, Jen, the editor, and Bruce, the consultant, are massively unattractive characters. Bruce’s practical competence might be appealing, if he weren’t so arrogant, self-serving, and—oddly, in this production—slickly corporate. Jen’s interest in jettisoning her charming husband because she’s hot for a guy who reminds her of the jerks she used to date did not endear her to me.

Fortunately, playwright Jordan Hall is smart. So she floats interesting ideas, including the one about survivalism being the latest apocalyptic fantasy to give alienated, discouraged folks a false sense of hope. And Hall gets off a number of wicked lines. Comforting Abby about her husband’s affair, Jen says, "If Tim did that to me, I’d hire someone to give him syphilis."

All of the acting in this production is solid. Claire Hesselgrave gives Jen all the bite that’s written in, which is a lot, and she even makes Jen sympathetic when the character softens. To his credit, Zahf Paroo doesn’t embarrass himself in the oddly conceived role of Bruce. In a terrific performance, Sebastien Archibald combines emotional vulnerability, a light touch, and a wacky sense of absurdity as Tim. And, in a lovely, subtly clown-like turn, Lindsey Angell uses her willowy frame to great comic effect, making the emotionally wobbly Abby physically wobbly as well.

How to Survive an Apocalypse is part of the Flying Start program, which is designed to support emerging playwrights, but, despite Hall’s obvious talent—Kayak—this script only works in fits and starts.