Rarefied Vision Shines in ‘Rimers’

Lanford Wilson doesn’t always focus in on his native Midwest, but when he does, his voice is powerful and authentic. Long before his Talley Trilogy, he wrote “The Rimers of Eldritch,” a tone poem seen through a glass darkly, about events in a former mining town.

Now little more than a ghost town, Eldritch is fertile ground for the nasty little evils that thrive behind the complacency of small town, Bible Belt America. A murder has taken place, but it is less pertinent to Wilson’s message than the passions and lusts, the hypocrisy and bigotry, of his uncaring, self-centered characters.

The action flows, in Wilson’s poetic imagery, from one brief scene to another as the citizens--from aging gossips to randy teenagers, from incapable parents to rabble-rousing authorities--unfold the tale. Our awareness of the citizens’ blindness and injustice builds gradually until the striking final moments of the play, when the truth behind the murder is revealed--to the audience. In their compliant ignorance, the people of Eldritch never do learn the truth.

Wilson’s honest and truthful vision is a rarefied one, and that quality shines through William Gekas’ staging at Cal State Fullerton. His handling of the characters as they move en masse from one thread of the story to another, like a great Greek chorus, is fluid and atmospheric.

Some of Gekas’ actors haven’t taken on the aura of this insular world, but the central figures have, and their attention to detail creates a valid sense of the time and place of Wilson’s fable of human frailty. On Michael Puoci’s layered setting, the mini-dramas that make up the whole are, for the most part, played out with integrity and compassion.

Melissa Dalton’s aggressive denial as a young woman testifying about the murder and Tracy Jensen’s foggy terror as her senile mother make for excellent portraits of forlorn loneliness. As a teenager reluctant to leave his adolescence, Michael Serna has an interesting fire burning beneath his characterization; it perfectly suits his juvenile, platonic friendship with a crippled girl who is more ready for sexual experimentation than he is. The girl is played honestly and forthrightly by Dannine Consoli.

Jennifer Dahl Chatien shows just the right brashness and sexual hunger as a widowed cafe-owner, and Jeffrey Vandenburgh, as a wanderer who takes up her romantic slack, hits all the right notes (though he is not as simmering as he could be). Christy Zollar gives an exceptionally lucid performance as a teenager whose imminent marriage doesn’t keep her from getting it on with the local males. Daniel H. Reutter is strong as her bigoted, animal-torturing brother, and Laura Raynor is notable as her sharp-tongued, unthinking mother.

As an innocent, affectingly wise and socially discarded soul named Skelly, Kristian Nelson delivers several long monologues. The underlying emotional thrust of his portrait stands out as the only man in town who isn’t blinded by self-deceit.

* “The Rimers of Eldritch,” Arena Theatre, Cal State Fullerton Performing Arts Center, 800 N. State College Blvd. Today, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Ends Sunday. $7 ($5 advance sale). (714) 773-3371. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

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“The Rimers of Eldritch,”

Melissa Dalton: Nelly Windrod

Tracy Jensen: Mary Windrod

Michael Serna: Robert Conklin

Jennifer Dahl Chatien: Cora Groves

Jeffrey Vandenburgh: Walter

Dannine Consoli: Eva Jackson

Daniel H. Reutter: Josh Johnson

Kristian Nelson: Skelly Mannor

Laura Raynor: Mavis Johnson

Christy Zollar: Patsy Johnson

A Cal State Fullerton School of the Arts production of a tone poem by Lanford Wilson, directed by William Gekas. Scenic design: Michael Puoci. Lighting design: Bonnie Vigil. Costume design: Abel Zeballos. Make-up/hair design: Kelly Merrell. Sound design: Bill Liotta. Vocal director: Melodie Henderson. Stage manager: Mary E. Jurenka.