STAGE REVIEW : Some Screwball Characters Are at ‘Cheatin’s’ Heart

The Garden Grove Community Theatre staged Del Shores’ “Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got the Will?)” a couple of years ago, so it makes good country sense that its latest show is Shores’ earlier comedy, “Cheatin’ “--also set on the baked back roads of Lowake, Tex.

Both hayseed odes rely on the type of straight-shooting, vaguely screwball characters who populate a landscape right out of “The Last Picture Show,” where the pace is slow but things are likely to get worked up in furious and funny ways.

The stuff that hits the fan in “Cheatin’ ” is infidelity, splattering all over a group of regulars who hang out at Bluebell’s Bar and Dining Facility. There’s one big-time affair and a heap of shifting alliances that keep the heat on, and Shores uses them all to draw some bold and often amusing characterizations of back-roads Middle America.

Peter Dolan, who directed “Daddy’s Dyin’ ” in Garden Grove in 1989, has returned for the new production. He certainly keeps everything colorful and noisy (too colorful and noisy at times), and speeding along.

He gets a handful of oversize but generally good amateur performances from his cast, especially from Melinda Parker as Ovella Parsons-Wilks, the unofficial queen of Lowake who’s been sleeping with Clarence (Kevin O’Loane) for years behind her hubby’s (Cameron Simbro’s) back. Parker plays Parsons-Wilks as a rawboned snob. Just think of a nastier, older Cybill Shepherd in “The Last Picture Show” and you’ll get an idea of this Ovella.

However, the production doesn’t meet the challenge put to it by its triptych set: David Howerton and Peter Dolan have given us a decent enough interpretation of the Bluebell, a motel room and a nearby beauty parlor, but the small theater doesn’t allow for a very comfortable view. As a result, the shifting action can seem congested and confusing.

‘Cheatin”

A Garden Grove Community Theatre production of Del Shores’ comedy. Directed by Peter Dolan. With Pat Hanrahan, Mike Moon, Kevin O’Loane, Rene C. Delk, Melinda Parker, Cameron Simbro and Kiana Kersh. Set by David Howerton and Peter Dolan. Lighting by Lee Schulman. Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. at 12001 St. Mark St., Garden Grove. Tickets: $6 and $7. (714) 897-5122.