O.C. THEATER REVIEW : Darkness Reigns in This ‘Kingdom’ : Cal State Fullerton stages a gutsy production of the Tennessee Williams play with seamless performances and impressive lighting.

Tennessee Williams eventually agreed with his critics, depressing as it was, that he wrote some bad plays in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, during what he called his “stoned age.” But some of those plays have been given second looks over the last decade, and while they lack the stature of the works from his golden age (such as “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “The Glass Menagerie” and even “The Night of the Iguana”), they now stand revealed as worthier than originally thought.

One such play is “Kingdom of Earth,” which is being given a gutsy, moody, darkly patinaed production at Cal State Fullerton.

Lot has been away from his land, undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Released from a hospital as incurable, he has married a low-life bleached blonde named Myrtle and has returned home to reign as master. But there’s a hitch: Before he left, he signed a will that would leave his property to his mulatto half-brother, Chicken.

That’s the story. The play, though, like all his plays, is actually about Williams himself and, in this case, his lobotomy-fogged sister, Rose. Here, elements of each can be seen in the ephemeral, effeminate, impotent, dying Lot and the hustling, libidinous, greedy Myrtle. Chicken is the power figure, the Stanley Kowalski, who has the control Williams never felt, the charisma to maintain it, the health to support it.

Director Meredith Wright lays these strata of tinted meanings carefully upon one another without ignoring the social implications of the situation Williams has set up. The playwright makes no comment on the racial issue (unusual subject matter for Williams); Wright, in her casting, has given it more weight.

*

Derrick Morgan is a powerful Chicken, broadening almost imperceptibly from the animalistic totem we first see, growing worthy of the lucid imagery in his richer lines of the second act. It’s a performance that finds its size with the same impressive force that impels the floodwaters about to inundate the house.

Deborah Geer’s Myrtle is a prattler who speaks without thinking and snatches at any opportunity to save herself from the disastrous mess into which she has fallen. Matthew Schleicher’s Beardsley-esque looks and antique-rose aura is perfect for the fading Lot, even as he carefully decks himself out as his late mother in preparation for his final moment, sitting primly in the parlor.

All three performances ring true and blend seamlessly into the moody, disintegrating world created not so much by Todd Muffatti’s scenic design as by the infinite chiaroscuro of Stacey Westbrook’s lighting.

* “Kingdom of Earth,” Arena Theatre, Cal State Fullerton’s Performing Arts Center, 800 N. State College Blvd., Fullerton. Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m. Ends Sunday. $4-$6. (714) 773-3371. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes. Derrick Morgan Chicken

Deborah Geer: Myrtle

Matthew Schleicher: Lot

A Cal State Fullerton Department of Theatre and Dance production of the drama by Tennessee Williams, directed by Meredith Wright. Scenic design: Todd Muffatti. Lighting design: Stacey Westbrook. Costume design: Tanya Michnevich. Sound design: John R. Fisher. Makeup/hair design: Natalie Carter. Stage manager: Sunil Swaroop.