Lovers in a Night of a Thousand Sighs : Actors Explore O’Neill’s Rocky Terrain of ‘A Moon for the Misbegotten’

“A Moon for the Misbegotten” at the Alternative Repertory Theatre has its dynamic moments. Most flare up when daughter Josie and her father scratch, nibble and bite at each other in what is both a loving and warring embrace.

The actors, Jeanne Dubuque and Gene Collens, generate a combustible, convincing chemistry that gives Eugene O’Neill’s drama a necessary charge. These two Irish rowdies have lived together on a roughed-up Connecticut farm for a long time, and all the intimate connections, whether testy or tender, are defined.

Too bad that revealing chemistry--physical, lyrical or otherwise--doesn’t reach to the more crucial relationship between Josie and Jim, the self-loathing drunk who serves as the most profound side in this dramatic triangle.

When O’Neill decided to bring these two together, he was shooting for a realistic love story, impure and never simple. Amid all the clanging aspects of the plot--which embroils daughter and dad in a plan to get the farm from Jim, who owns it--the focus finds these two struggling to find some joy and redemption.

Although Jim may have betrayed them, prompting their own scheme, Josie still loves this charming loser. And if we don’t feel the bond between them, the drama weaves and stumbles, threatening to fall flat on its face.

Dubuque does her part. She gives life to Josie, a big woman, both in body and spirit. Dubuque has to communicate earthy toughness, but with a submerged tenderness for all things lost, and she’s able to do that. It’s this voluptuousness of the heart that forges the link with Jim.

But John S. Ruston is outmatched, unable to project Jim’s disillusionment and fatalism. Ruston substitutes listlessness for heartbreak, quiet for introspection. It’s not a miserable performance, only one that fails to convey a sense of loss that should sweep over the stage.

On the positive side, director Barbara Covington uses the tiny space to good effect; her blocking, so important in these crowded, intimate surroundings, is economical and graceful.

She gets help from D. Silvio Volonte, who has crafted a rustic interpretation of the farmhouse porch that also fits nicely. David C. Palmer’s lighting isn’t varied, but the shadowy quality drapes over the play’s moody texture.

‘A Moon for the Misbegotten’

An Alternative Repertory Theatre production of Eugene O’Neill’s play. Directed by Barbara Covington. With Jeanne Dubuque, Gene Collens, John S. Rushton and Edward Rowan. Set by D. Silvio Volonte. Lighting by David C. Palmer. Costumes by Karen J. Weller. Sound by Gary Christensen. Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. through March 13 at 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. $13.50 to $16. (714) 836-7929. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.