California Dreaming in ‘Nimrod Soul’

As predictably as swallows fly to Capistrano, dream-chasers traditionally flock to the West Coast. John Hawkes’ one-man show “Nimrod Soul” at Theatre/Theater dramatizes the personal consequences for various hopefuls crushed by the Hollywood dream machine.

All of Hawkes’ characters are small-towners (“nimrods,” i.e. hicks) whose rural antecedents make the adjustment to big-city life a particular challenge.

Jade, a career waitress, cautions a starry-eyed new employee that she, too, once came to L.A. to be a star. An isolated farm boy, delighted when cable finally arrives in his remote backwater, enthuses “MTV changed my life!” But what a change. When his family loses their farm, the star-struck youth hops a bus to the coast, and winds up selling his body for a return ticket to a home that no longer exists.

Hawkes occasionally strains for sentiment, but even when his characters seem slightly shopworn (Jade we have seen before, ditto a retarded homeless person), Hawkes invests them with a distinctive poignancy. And under the astute guidance of director Jim Fritzler, Hawkes defies constraints of age and gender, crafting each individual portrait in his gallery of wistful dreamers with gentle wit and uncanny precision.

* “Nimrod Soul,” Theatre/Theater, 1713 Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends March 10. $10. (213) 850-6941. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.