O.C. THEATER / ROBERT KOEHLER : Riding to Rescue in ‘True West’ : Andrew Barnicle, Peder Melhuse Play It Fast and Loose in Sam Shepard Play

Almost from the moment we sat down, we started to worry about the Laguna Playhouse production of Sam Shepard’s “True West.” Jacquie Moffett’s suburban kitchen set looks awfully big for an older home in Duarte--roughly the area of the play (and where Shepard spent a lot of time growing up). And the opening line--this corner’s pick for funniest of any post-’60s play (“So Mom took off for Alaska, huh?”)--was pretty much lost. Bad signs.

Signs, though, aren’t a show, and actors Andrew Barnicle and Peder Melhuse soon released the beasts of Shepard’s savage-comic battle between brothers. By the end, they were tracking each other like rabid coyotes, in a way that most “True West” casts are incapable of doing. So much for rough starts.

Joan McGillis’ staging is both funnier and tougher than the Quaid brothers’ show of a few years ago, and the 1987 Grove production as well. It even may rank with Gary Sinise’s New York staging, in which Barnicle and Melhuse played at different times. They are actors who have this play in their blood systems, with all the confidence to really let go when the rules of civilized behavior begin to break down. They create a very good case for this being, if not Shepard’s best work, very possibly his funniest.

McGillis seems to have trusted Barnicle’s and Melhuse’s instincts. What she has added is the adroit casting of Jim Ryan as a smooth, not-obviously-sleazy producer and Elizabeth (Betsy) Hewitt as the brothers’ absurdly dim-witted mother (who does return from Alaska, only to find a true wilderness in her kitchen).

Even for those familiar with Shepard’s game here--in which upstanding Austin (Barnicle) finds himself switching positions with vagabond desert rat Lee (Melhuse) and questioning (among other things) what screenwriting truly amounts to--there’s an attack to the text at Laguna that keeps the 12-year-old play in fighting trim.

Expectations almost immediately get upended. We expect Lee, for instance, to be physically bigger than Austin--man of survival against man of the written word. But because he plays large, Melhuse is able to hide for some time the fact that he’s much shorter than Barnicle. This doesn’t diminish his threat--to Austin’s body, to his being, to his growing self-identity as a player in Hollywood.

When Lee does his own Hollywood move, Melhuse pushes the envelope, adding business like giving Ryan’s producer a pat on the rump in full view of Austin. It’s his silent message of “I’m in , and you’re out ,” in a dangerous code.

It’s also just what the play needs. Barnicle suggests that Austin is astonished at himself for doing outlaw things that Lee is supposed to do well, and enjoys scaring Lee in the process. The regression to little boy-hood feels equally dangerous here, giving off the feeling that the regression may have no end to it, that we’re going down the slippery slope, and fast.

A memorable “True West” has to work like this, because Shepard’s ultimate joke is that Lee’s ridiculous Western chase movie idea indeed may be the “true-life story” he claims. Shepard has yet to enjoy the cockeyed, ironic pleasure of a movie version of this play, but at least it continues to bring out the best in actors willing to take the gloves off.

‘True West’

A Laguna Playhouse production of the play by Sam Shepard, directed by Joan McGillis. With Andrew Barnicle, Elizabeth (Betsy) Hewitt, Peder Melhuse and Jim Ryan. Set design: Jacquie Moffett. Lighting design: R. Timothy Osborn. Sound design: David Edwards. Continues Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach, through Feb. 6 with a 2 p.m. performance Feb. 7. Running time: 2 hours. $14-$19. (714) 494-8021, ext. 3.