STAGE REVIEW : Corny but Potent Road Leads to Cozy ‘Home’

International City Theatre knows you can go homeagain. The proof is in its revival of Samm-Art Williams’ “Home.”

The verse play depicts the odyssey of a philosophical farmer who leaves the country for the big city, grows disillusioned and returns to his roots. It’s as corny as bootleg corn whiskey and just as potent. The fact that the farmer happens to be African-American is almost irrelevant. If Norman Rockwell had been black and Southern, “Home” could be his home.

But you’d expect Williams’ gentle, lyric, nostalgic storytelling style to seem quaint today. After all, much has happened between the races since “Home” was nominated for a Tony as 1980’s Best Broadway Play. Rap music’s rage, August Wilson’s articulate epics, Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” and Anna Deavere Smith’s monologues on last year’s Los Angeles riots--such cultural rhetoric should bury a humanist fable about God-fearing “colored people.”

But we are quickly charmed and captivated by Cephus Miles of Cross Roads, N.C. At first, he sits slumped in a rocking chair, content to ignore the taunts of neighboring children who superstitiously fear that the eccentric old man is part bogeyman and part tooth fairy. Then Cephus leisurely invites us to join him on the front porch and listen to his story.

It’s an irresistible invitation, especially when offered by an actor of Cliff Gober Jr.’s compelling warmth. Cephus’ stories are accompanied by Synthia L. Hardy and Cherene Snow as a multi-voiced chorus portraying dozens of characters. All demonstrate remarkable range. Under caryn morse’s direction, the gifted actors work together like a seasoned jazz trio improvising country blues.

Cephus poetically describes the land of fatback and grits, tobacco fields and “a good Saturday night fish fry.” We follow his childhood experiences on the farm, discover his love of nature and, gradually, his love of a neighborhood girl. But before she’ll accept him, Cephus must be baptized at the Baptist Church. Soon, he is a born-again believer, accepting with certainty that “God’s on vacation in Miami.”

This innocence is corrupted during the Vietnam War. Cephus obeys the commandment not to kill and ends up in a military stockade. Emerging after five years, he is “harder, older, colder--turned to hardened rock.” Like so many other country boys, he flees to the “Monster city.” He quickly learns what a hooker means by, “Where there is no money, there can be no love.”

Homeless, Cephus descends into urban hell. It’s not until a Christmas Eve when he finds himself on a bus bound back to Cross Roads. Getting off the bus, he is amazed to discover “white folks and colored folks in the same bus station.” But he doesn’t pause to ponder ethnic issues. He is too eager to seize his personal black power: “ . . . the black sod--the fertile, pungent soil of home.”

All is not paradise with this play. The chronology is confusing after Cephus returns home, and the intermissionless run of two hours is slightly too long. Don Gruber’s minimal set seems more like a movie backdrop than a landscape evoking North Carolina backwoods. And even the actors seem unconvinced by the contrived happy ending.

However, “Home” is unapologetically hopeful. If political groups find fault with Williams’ heartfelt fable (the playwright’s own youth in North Carolina is the basis for his story), it may be because activists rarely realize that home is where the art is. The ICT has taken the politically incorrect road, and that has made all the difference.

* “Home,” International City Theatre, Long Beach City College, Clark Avenue and Harvey Way, Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 & 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 29. $16. (714) 740-2000. Running time: 2 hours.