‘Peach’ Offers a Rich Parable

Rain, shmain. In Clifford Odets’ “The Flowering Peach,” now at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, the Old Testament patriarch Noah faces more problems from his dysfunctional family than from the Great Flood.

A freewheeling, seriocomic adaptation of the Genesis story, this was Odets’ last (1954) play and probably his least typical. Gone are the left-wing polemics and class obsessions that marked his Depression Era classics. It’s almost as if the Cold War forced the aging playwright to turn away from current events and embrace something timeless and ideology-free.

But it’s not a clean break. In Odets’ imagination, Noah’s clan talks and behaves much like the divided families in “Awake and Sing!” and “Paradise Lost” (two earlier Odets efforts playing elsewhere).

Noah (Joseph Ruskin) kvetches about his rebellious sons, while wife Esther (Barbara Perry) rules the roost. The classic Odets protagonist comes in the form of son Japeth (Paul Mercier), a tormented young man torn between allegiance to hidebound parents and his vision of the future.

Revisiting a biblical story in this way can seem jarringly anachronistic, even phony; after a character mutters “oy!” or an equally colloquial expression, you half-expect the cast to break into a show tune. But director Jerry Beal and actors wisely play the material straight, with a minimum of shtick. Just the quietly dramatized construction of the ark--with each family member symbolically toting one wooden plank--speaks volumes about Odets’ dream of family unity.

What finally emerges is a rich and strangely touching parable, quite different from but complementary to the one told by the Genesis author.

* “The Flowering Peach,” Theatre 40, 241 Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. Dark Thanksgiving. Ends Dec. 18. $14-$17. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Another Look at ‘Of Mice and Men’

If you can stand hearing George tell Lennie about the rabbits one more time, the new “Of Mice and Men” at A Noise Within in Glendale delivers a straightforward, handsome mounting of John Steinbeck’s tale. Directed by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez Elliott, this is at least the third stage version to have opened around town this season.

Steve Weingartner and Geoff Elliott are well-cast as George and Lennie, two farmhands who watch their dreams disappear one harvest season on a California ranch. Compact and wiry, Weingartner suggests Ed Harris in his reading of the moody, cynical George. Elliott’s eyes twinkle with a bit too much native intelligence as mentally retarded Lennie, but onstage together both actors hint at a full range of complicated emotional ties.

The support is less appealing, with the notable exception of Neil Vipond, who brings feisty, codger-ish charm to the role of Candy, a one-handed hired hand with one foot in the grave.

* “Of Mice and Men,” A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. In rotating repertory (call for show times). Ends Dec. 17. $17-$19. (818) 546-1924. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.