STAGE REVIEWS : Dynarski Theatre Offers First-Rate ‘Lie of the Mind’

Shepard country. The very words conjure up the skewed, edgy, dark side of the American family. Sam Shepard’s blood-knot of a drama, “A Lie of the Mind,” evokes a hardscrabble Western counterpart to Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

Shepard’s play is long--but not unreasonably so--and demanding of actors and audiences. Now comes a rich revival at the Dynarski Theatre that catches Shepard’s sinewy, raw emotions under the fine direction of Marietta Marich, who cast a son and daughter in the production, making it a family venture that mercifully translates into stark family veracity.

Marich also appears distinctively as the fiery widowed mom of a wild, love-obsessed son, portrayed with the feral danger of a wounded lion by Brian Binns.

The play is about two families--one in Montana (the country), one in California (the city). One is fatherless and the other father-burdened (a crusty, bellowing performance by Gene Dynarski).

Allison Marich plays the young, physically beaten wife who flees to Montana and her addled family, including a vengeful brother (Michael Marich) and a preoccupied mother (Margaret Blye). Interlocked by a marriage that gives new meaning to the term love-hate, the families are not merely dysfunctional but also havens that children seek when things get so bad there is no place else to go.

The show groans under a pale yellow moon high in a bleak Western sky (designed by Mary E. Murdock). If time doesn’t exactly fly, it curls and twists into a dynamic closing act.

* “A Lie of the Mind,” Gene Dynarski Theatre, 5600 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays, 7 p.m.; Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 1 and 7 p.m. Ends Feb. 28. $12-$16. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 3 hours, 20 minutes.