THEATER REVIEW : Inventive Sampling of ‘Spoon River’ Dramas : New version of Edgar Lee Masters’ classic offers a view of small-town Americana.

There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. That may be true, but the desire to save a couple of bucks has prompted some pretty interesting inventions. Consider the case of “Spoon River Sampler,” playing at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center under the auspices of the Actors Repertory Theatre of Simi (ARTS).

It was put in as a last-minute replacement when a previously announced engagement of “Our Town” canceled out. Since it’s also a portrait of small-town, turn-of-the-century America, “Spoon River” is an apt choice.

First published in 1915, “Spoon River Anthology” is Illinois writer Edgar Lee Masters’, uh, Masterspiece: a portrait of a small Midwestern town as told by its own inhabitants, through their epitaphs. Charles Aidman’s staged adaptation of about half of Masters’ more than 200 free-verse mini-portraits was first brought to the stage in 1963 and has been popular ever since.

But Aidman’s “Anthology” is copyrighted, and people have to pay to perform it. Masters’ original work has outlived its copyright, and anybody is free to do whatever they like with the piece. Which is what Simi Valley’s Jan Glasband has done: She’s selected her own 100-plus epitaphs from Masters’ original work, and assembled them into her own version of the “Anthology,” which she calls “Spoon River Sampler” and gets to produce without paying a royalty.

As in Aidman’s version, Glasband has located her “Sampler” in the town cemetery, where inhabitants rise from the soil to tell their stories--each only a minute or so long. Aidman’s script used five players; Glasband’s production is performed by a company of 13 men and women. In both versions, the epitaphs are interspersed with musical interludes.

Spoon River’s history goes way back, through several wars, and few of the town’s inhabitants died peacefully in their sleep: Some were battle casualties, some were killed and some were criminals. There’s the druggist who blew himself up while mixing a potion; and the cruel animal trainer who was killed by his charges--he’s met in the afterlife by French revolutionary terrorist Robespierre, who tells him that he got what he deserved; Masters is big on irony.

The company consists of Lee Altmar, James Egan, Aaron Forster, Paul Forster, Alan Glasband, Karen Mallicoat, Kathy Meadows, Karl Mikelson, Laura Mual, Cyndy Payo, Mike Pratt, Ron Rosen and Dawn Werber. All are dressed in black (except one woman, in dark blue at Sunday’s matinee), with occasional flashes of color--a bright sash, a hat, a feather boa. Individual performances range from flat delivery to great animation; one of the women puts so much Katharine Hepburn into her delivery that you half-expect her to burst into “the calla lilies are in bloom again.”

A shade over two hours long, this “Spoon River” has much to offer as a rounded-out (though attractively lurid) version of American history, and--as with all ARTS productions--you can’t beat the admission price.

Details

* WHAT: “Spoon River Sampler.”

* WHEN: Friday and Saturday evening at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. through Feb. 19.

* WHERE: Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3190 Cochran St., Simi Valley.

* COST: Free; donations accepted.

* FYI: Admission is first-come, first-served, no reservations accepted. For further information, call 583-9763.