Really, it comes down to your willingness to pay $10 to see the shark.

Look, we love Catalyst Theatre Company. We do. We recommended their bold, Brechtian shows on two subsequent October 17ths! We admire their ambition, adapting Orwell and Kafka and whatnot, and their proletarian business model: All hail the $10 ticket!

So we’re crying briny tears at the prospect of having to say that Catalyst’s latest offering represents a grave disturbance in the Force. The company’s usually-astute taste in material takes a hit with Swimming in the Shallows, an aptly-named, vapid little nothing-much of a surreal relationships comedy by Adam Bock. Then again, if you’re the type who finds wocka-wocka bumper-sticker phrases like “Marriage . . . it’s kind of a commitment!” funny, this just might just be your bag, Baby.

There are a few riotous moments, mostly attributable to director Scott Fortier’s buoyant staging and the rat-a-tat comic rapport among the cast, who work like dogs to bring some life to Bock’s sub-sitcom-level collection of characters. But Bock’s listless narrative and lack of insight into human or animal behavior left us cold.

Catalyst regular Christopher Janson plays Nick, a dude-about-town who sleeps with too many men too fast. Ellen Young is likable and convincing as Barb, bored in her marriage to the slovenly Bob (Scott Bailey, doing good work in a tough part) and ill at ease with her — our — materialistic lifestyle. Barb is a nurse, apparently, like her friend friend Carla Carla (Adrienne Nelson). We know this because they’re dressed in scrubs, though come to think of it, they could just as well be dental hygienists. Or housepainters. Not that we need to know every character’s profession, but we should know something about them other than what they announce to us.

Photos by Joe Shymanski; courtesy Catalyst Theater Company