STAGE REVIEW : ‘The Diviners’ Paints Too Simple a Picture

The country that Jim Leonard Jr. evokes in “The Diviners” is not real country. In the dirt poor, simple livin’, simple lovin’ world of Leonard’s meager play, everybody was born either in overalls or gingham, totes the Good Book, is durn suspicious of strangers and “Yee-haws!” a lot.

This isn’t the faceted truth of Willa Cather country. In short, “The Diviners,” now at Orange Coast College, isn’t so much about the genuine article as it is a prepackaged vision of what rural life is, or was.

The setting is a little Indiana farming community during the Depression. People complain about Herbert Hoover and worry about the dry spell. When they need a new well, they don’t consult water tables but get the local diviner to scramble in a trance until his witching rod finds the spot. Then they start digging.

That brings us to one of the drama’s central figures: Buddy (Trace Kirkpatrick), a feeble-minded kid who bothers everybody with his hyperactivity and nonstop running off at the mouth.

But folks put up with him, well, because he’s basically a good young’un. And besides, Buddy is the diviner--a boy with spooky visions and an otherworldly power to find water.

Everything muddles along until a vagabond preacher (James Parks) with serious doubts about the Gospel comes up the dusty highway. He’s real good-looking, so all the women get an itch for him, especially Jennie Mae (Laura Hinsberger), Buddy’s sister. But it seems the reverend is most interested in Buddy. See, in a way they’re kindred spirits, both of them carrying their own personal demons.

There is some curious, even interesting stuff here, no doubt. But Leonard’s simplistic sketches of the people and their milieu is what torpedoes “The Diviners” almost from the start. It’s difficult to dwell on the superstitions of the community, its mix of fervent Bible spirituality and black-cat beliefs, or the play’s personal relationships, when distracted by the stereotyping of the characters and plot.

Director Alex Golson (Ponzer Berkman helped direct) and the cast, however, do just about all they can with the script, meaning they handle these cliched characters pretty much the way they are written.

One thing that does come out of all this is what a promising young actor James Parks is. He brings humor, a sensual slyness and the right degree of desperation to his role, dominating most of his scenes. Parks has apparently also mastered the pause--that hesitation that can add dimension to a performance.

The set (uncredited) is almost non-existent, depending on dark gray colors and Lonnie Alcaraz’s lighting (flashes to represent a lightning storm and well-placed spots to accent a moment) for effects. The minimalist approach is fine, though. In “The Diviners,” it’s not the set that should be or say more, it’s the play.

‘THE DIVINERS’

An Orange Coast College Repertory Theatre Company production of Jim Leonard Jr.’s drama. Directed by Alex Golson. Co-directed by Ponzer Berkman. With David Sabin, Mark Coyan, Trace Kirkpatrick, Kelly Flynn, Toni Cafaro, James Parks, Rose M. Farquhar, Laura Hinsberger, Mike Collins, Joyce Eriksen, Kelly Patterson and Denise M. Horvat. Lighting by Lonnie Alcaraz. Plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at the campus’s Studio Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $3.50 to $6. (714) 432-5580.