THEATER REVIEW : When Two-Bit Crooks Go for High Stakes

What are dreams for, and where do they take us? Should we be happy with the small change in life? Or should we risk losing all on a throw of the dice for the big prize? Those are some of the questions Mark Jordan Legan seems to be asking in his tight, focused little drama “Nickel & Dime,” at the Hudson Theatre.

Ray and Frank are brothers. Marv knew their alcoholic father, and stood in his place as their mentor. He taught them a trade, and tried to instill in them a feeling for the safety of staying in the small time, nickel-and-diming it. They rip off small grocery stores and appliance shops and pick up television sets wherever they can find them. Marv is retired now, but they still turn to him like a security blanket. And Frank doesn’t want Marv to know anything about his big plans to tackle a bank job.

Legan’s script compresses the action into two days, which allows him to keep the emotions volatile--while remaining believable--and the suspense taut. Each dramatic step leads up to the bank job, with the final scene following that disastrous foray along with the inevitable denouement that Frank’s greed and Ray’s dreams have brought about. Marv’s lessons didn’t take.

“Nickel & Dime” is a rough tale told in a fragile framework, and that quality is understood by director Chris Beach. Its hardness is clear in some of Beach’s hammering tempos, in the headlong vocal drive of Borah Silver’s crusty old Marv, and the frenetic energy of Gordon Clapp’s unthinking Frank.

The fragility finds itself in Don Harvey’s puckish, frolicking younger brother Ray, along with all the empathy and the disarming realization that Ray seems to be walking about three steps out of sync with the real world.

Ray’s at the emotional center of the trio, and the imp Harvey makes of him is just right.

All three actors are at home in this high-stakes game, along with Linda Larkin as a bimbotic teen-ager Ray picks up to keep Marv company. Her role is not crucial to the play’s central shape, but Larkin’s giggly, not-so-naive intruder in this man’s world fits well into Legan’s picture of life skidding to a stop before it’s begun.

Clare Scarpulla’s grungy mountain cabin set seethes with a feeling of despair, well-shaded and toned by Michael Nevitt’s lighting and Charles Dayton’s sound. Durinda Wood’s costumes help define the characters as well as clothe them.

“Nickel & Dime,” Hudson Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Ends April 4. $15; (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.