THEATER REVIEWS : Fullerton’s ‘Grapes’ Yields a Tart Social Harvest : College’s rich and lovingly produced staging of Steinbeck classic is as meaningful today as it was decades ago.

There are probably few literary works from the past that are as pertinent to the social problems of today’s America than John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” Massive unemployment, the shattering of family, homelessness and little relief in sight--the pendulum has swung back to the national ills Steinbeck recorded during the Great Depression.

Using Frank Galati’s adaptation, which first saw life at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and later played Broadway, Fullerton College’s production is amazingly true to the period and to the chiaroscuro of Steinbeck’s poetics. It also understands the anger, terror and ultimate hope of the tragic Joad family, ripped from their Dust Bowl farm and deposited in the hopelessness of the Depression job-rush to California. Look around. It stills seems hopeless.

What’s even more amazing is that director Robert Jensen has accomplished his richly realized staging in the small black-box Bronwyn Dodson Theatre. His detailed, versatile scenic design, and Steven Craig’s rich and evocative lighting design, make the space appear much larger than it actually is.

From the dusty farmland the Joads leave at the beginning, to the Colorado River where they are finally able to bathe, to the deceptively sunny camps and Hoovervilles of California, the designers fool the eye and draw the viewer into the play’s world.

Galati’s stage adaptation is not an easy piece of theater to pull off, but Jensen and his cast do it with enthusiasm, dedication and obvious affection. There are just a couple of instances of overplaying (Bonnie Nordquist’s Granma always looks as though she’s at a revival meeting), but in a cast this large, that’s unavoidable. The missteps are few.

Where it counts most, in the central figures who guide the emotional forward thrust of the story, the performances are unerring.

Adam D. Clark’s tight-lipped, purposeful, angry Tom Joad is the thread that ties it all together, and Clark even manages to allow some of Tom’s sense of humor to show through, the humor that makes it possible for all the Joads to keep going. Mary Wilson and Trace Larson, as Ma and Pa Joad, have no trouble making the viewer forget their youth after the first few moments; Wilson’s gradually increasing power and Larson’s resigned thoughtfulness are impressive.

Ed Bucsko is closer to Grampa’s age, and has a little ball with his restrained comic approach to the old man’s contrariness in his final days. As Tom’s 16-year-old brother Al, Andrew Pinon not only captures the boy’s kid qualities, but does so with the open naivete that was more prevalent in that era.

Darri Kuhns creates a striking image as daughter Rose of Sharon, and Sean McNall is strong as her thoughtless husband Connie, in spite of a contemporary hairstyle, with his look of haunted desperation.

Of particular note is the oil-slick smooth ex-preacher Casey of Kreg Donahoe, honest but glib, humble but grand. And Donahoe is responsible for the creation of the marvelously improbable truck the multitude of Joads hope will get them to their Paradise, the Golden Promise of California.

* “The Grapes of Wrath,” Bronwyn Dodson Theatre, Fullerton College, 321 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton. Nightly through Sunday, 8 p.m., Sunday matinee, 2 p.m. Ends Sunday. $8. (714) 871-8101. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Adam D. Clark: Tom Joad

Kreg Donahoe: Jim Casey

Trace Larson: Pa

Mary Wilson: Ma

Ed Bucsko: Grampa

Bonnie Nordquist: Granma

Darri Kuhns: Rose of Sharon

Sean McNall: Connie Rivers

Andrew Pinon: Al Joad

A Fullerton College Theatre Department production. Frank Galati’s stage adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel. Directed by Robert Jensen. Scenic design: Robert Jensen. Vocal coach: Gordon Smith. Property design: Barbara Meyer. Truck design: Kreg Donahoe. Costumes & makeup design: Mela Hoyt-Heydon. Lighting: Steven Craig. Sound design: Gary Christensen. Combat choreography: Matt Freeman. Production stage manager: Lynn Farrell.