Erma Bombeck: At Wit's End isn't so much a play as a collection of zippy one-liners lifted directly from the writing of the popular newspaper columnist and bestselling humorist, who died in 1996. And Arizona Theatre Company's production couldn't do much to save this stale honorarium by playwright sisters Allison and Margaret Engel. They hadn't bothered to write much of a story, instead creating a timeline they borrowed wholesale from Bombeck's many essays about motherhood, housewifery, and the place of women in contemporary culture. Bombeck herself is lost in the Engels' bid for laughs aimed at her wry assessment that motherhood was hard, and the world was a wearying place to live in. If there was anything to recommend this tired tale, it was Jeanne Paulsen's neat performance as Bombeck. Affable and demure, Paulsen did what she could with this recitation of Bombeck's aging punchlines. Rather than impersonate the columnist, she channeled instead her quiet anger, folding it (as Bombeck had done) in humor and a friendly shrug. Hurrah to Paulsen, then, for making the most of a mostly bad thing.