From left: Richard Baird and Louis Lotorto in "The Maltese Falcon" at Laguna Playhouse (Photo by Aaron Rumley) Using more contorted similes and metaphors than an English professor teaching romantic poetry to hard-boiled detectives, “The Maltese Falcon” at Laguna Playhouse delivers chuckles with a side of noir. A new commissioned play by Matthew Salazar-Thompson that recently premiered at North Coast Rep, “The Maltese Falcon” sends up Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel while remain

From left: Michael-Leon Wooley, Mary Faber, Trent Mills, Regina Fernandez (hanging) and John Sanders in "The Play That Goes Wrong" at the...