STAGE REVIEW : Vivid Production of ‘Joe Egg’ Is Staged in Santa Ana : British playwright Peter Nichols cuts bone-deep with corrosive humor in the 1967 comedy about a disintegrating marriage and a handicapped child.

The humor of “Joe Egg,” which opened over the weekend at the Alternative Repertory Theatre, is nothing if not corrosive. Anyone seeking sweet homilies on faith, hope and charity had better look elsewhere.

British playwright Peter Nichols cuts bone-deep with this satiric 1967 comedy about the disintegrating marriage of a Bristol couple whose lives revolve around their 10-year-old daughter, Joe, an angelic-looking child who is mute, spastic, paraplegic and brain-damaged.

Brian, played by Todd Patrick Breaugh, is a schoolteacher who hates his work and paints in the attic (his favorite portrait is “The Thalidomide Kid”), loves his wife but taunts her about her former lovers, and takes a dim view of doctors, priests and God (“I see Him as a sort of manic-depressive rugby-footballer”).

His wife, Sheila, played by Amy Larson, is a churchgoing Earth Mother who nurtures life wherever she finds it, blames herself for Joe’s condition, prays for a miracle to make Joe whole and humors Brian by participating in his derisive vaudeville sketches, caustic parodies and sick jokes.

Not having seen Albert Finney as Brian in the original Broadway version of “Joe Egg,” I have no idea why Nichols objected to his performance as a “star turn” that distorted the meaning of the play. The fact is that the entire first act, with its burlesque impersonations and volatile monologues addressed directly to the audience, calls for stellar wattage from any actor who plays Brian. He either turns in a charismatic, bravura performance or you can write off the evening.

Happily, Breaugh lights up this well-directed production from beginning to end with a persuasive, sensitive, acid-etched portrait of a man long past the usual bromides. He brings a bright, free-wheeling confidence to the role while also lending it dark reserves of bitter irony. Because of Breaugh’s all-encompassing performance, it is easier to overlook Larson’s earnest but fussy stage mannerisms.

In the second act--a more conventional social satire--we meet Freddy and his wife, Pam, who are both members of the amateur acting troupe that Sheila has joined at Brian’s insistence to put some variety in her life and to take her mind off Joe. Sheila has invited the couple home for drinks one evening around Christmas after a rehearsal. We also meet Brian’s mother, Grace, who drops over on her own.

Freddy (Phillip Jake Smith) happens to be an old schoolmate of Brian’s and is everything that Brian is not: well-heeled, humorless and party-line liberal. An industrial socialist full of empty phrases, Freddy is a perennial do-gooder who believes “there’s only one useful approach to any human problem and that’s a positive one.” What’s more, Brian has accused Sheila of having an affair with him.

Meanwhile, Pam (Sally Leonard) is Sheila’s opposite: a bitchy, insensitive snob with upper-class pretensions and a ludicrous fondness for speaking in capital letters: “It’s terribly PLU” (for people like us) and “I can’t stand anything NPA” (for non-physically attractive). There is nothing Pam likes less than having to be anywhere in the vicinity of Brian’s and Sheila’s biological disaster.

As for Joe, she is played by a life-size doll wrapped in a blanket and deposited in a wheelchair. Her parents talk to her incessantly, projecting her thoughts and feelings for themselves and for us. It is all part of an elaborate charade that Brian and Sheila have created to cope with rock-bottom despair. Their fantasies, made up of love and guilt, envelop Joe like a nimbus.

The choice of a doll rather than an actor in the role of Joe is predicated on director Joel T. Cotter’s idea that the audience in ART’s tiny storefront space would be made uncomfortable by a live person having epileptic fits and that this would blur the focus of the play. Perhaps so. But using a doll shifts the center of gravity. It also forces Cotter to excise a surprise first-act finale that Nichols himself believed to be one of the surreal climaxes of the play.

Even so, Cotter has staged the most adventurous, vivid and accomplished production in ART’s three-year history. Whatever its shortcomings--a meandering second act, for instance--this “Joe Egg” has authentic texture, helped by acceptable British accents (thanks to dialect coach Allen Zeltzer) and superbly understated details of the costume and set designs.

Although it would have been nice to see a stronger match between Breaugh and Larson, let’s not quibble. Leonard gives a notable supporting performance, Marina Dorcy puts in a commendable cameo (as Grace), and once Smith settles down, he’s bound to lose some of his stiffness.

‘JOE EGG’

An Alternative Repertory Theatre production of “Joe Egg” through June 16. Written by Peter Nichols. Directed by Joel T. Cotter. Produced by Kathleen A. Bryson. With Todd Patrick Breaugh, Amy Larson, Sally Leonard, Phillip Jake Smith, Marina Dorcy. Scenic and lighting design by David C. Palmer. Costume design by Karen J. Weller. Sound design and makeup by Gary Christensen. ART is at 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Performances Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets: $10 to $12. Information: (714) 836-7929.