‘Home Grown’ Yields a Mixed Harvest

Flashback! Remember those ‘60s head shop posters depicting the “American Gothic” couple as marijuana farmers? The concept has been stretched to full-length dimensions in “Home Grown,” a joint venture of sorts between the Echo Theater Company and its Showtime Networks sponsor at the Ventura Court Theatre.

Set in present-day Ohio, Rick Cleveland’s comedy centers on a farm family’s novel solution to its financial woes--switching production to America’s leading “cash crop.”

Juxtaposing the American heartland with the dope culture propels some inspired spoofing, a la Cheech and Chong meet the Clampetts. Paul McCrane’s brisk staging sports some pinpoint renditions of pot smoking, replete with suppressed coughs and even the munchies.

Some fine performances enliven the mostly cartoonish characters, though double casting introduces an element of unpredictability in this regard. Among the reviewed cast, the standouts were Guy Boyd as the clan patriarch, Karen S. Gregan as the divorced daughter, Brian Cousins as the long-lost cousin who leads them down the garden path, and Bob Mitchell as a former son-in-law inconveniently employed as a cop.

However, this extended riff on “imagine your straight parents getting stoned” becomes muddled when it tries to venture into darker psychological terrain. Only the daughter comes across as a complete character with boundaries that extend past the confines of the plot. Serious reworking and polishing is needed to do full justice to a promising concept.

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* “Home Grown,” Ventura Court Theatre, 12417 Ventura Court, Studio City. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends April 5. $15. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.