Pathway Too Far Afield for ‘Lilies’

William E. Barrett’s “The Lilies of the Field” is a feel-good novel. The memorable screen adaptation earned Sidney Poitier an Oscar. But F. Andrew Leslie’s stage adaptation has a history of being hard to crack.

Leslie didn’t really make “Lilies” into a play. Instead, he focused on familiar scenes from the novel and the movie, filling in the narrative with boring monologues.

It takes an imaginative director and an exemplary cast to make the stage version work. Unfortunately, director John Haggard and his Pathway Theater Company cast stumble over Leslie’s every pothole.

Following the chronological original story, it is 1960, and Army veteran Homer Smith is enjoying his newfound freedom as a civilian. He has a van and enough money, and he is feeling his wings. He stops at a desolate Southwestern ranch, offering a day’s work for a day’s pay.

The ranch is home to a group of nuns from Communist East Germany, led by Mother Maria Marthe, the aggressive, martinet of a mother superior. Mother Maria not only gives Homer a day’s work, at no pay, but also talks him into building a chapel on the dust-blown ranch. He does, and his work becomes local legend.

Pathway’s facility, at the New Community Center in Irvine, is not theater-friendly. It’s a community room that allows only minimal scenic design, and the available lighting is sketchy.

Still, even this could be overcome if the production were conceived with a sense of theatricality, but Haggard has made strange choices in his staging.

The script doesn’t move smoothly, but an imaginative director can make it seem to. Yet that doesn’t happen here.

The two scenes in Lupe Gonzalez’s cafe require a wall to be rotated, which takes too long, as does the placing and setting of the nuns’ dining table. Each element should have been given a space on stage, to avoid the uncomfortable long pauses between scenes.

Even brief pauses between short scenes are elongated by lethargic folk music.

The highlight is Tony Grace’s performance as Homer. He is as charming, as forthright and as hard-edged as Homer should be, and Grace understands the nuances that make the character memorable. Grace deserves a better production to surround his performance.

Becki Henry, as Mother Maria, seems driven to make the audience like her. Instead, she gives a colorless performance, ignoring the tough, bitter subtext that should make her character notable.

The nuns are properly opaque; still, Debbie Thompson stands out as Sister Albertine, the talented artist. Thompson’s is a winning and gratifying portrait of a woman with several gifts, among them kindness.

Erika Dittner is effective as Gonzalez, the cafe owner who helps provide tools and material for Homer. Matt Morrison, as Father Gomez, has most of the narrative monologues and drones, ending each line with a downward inflection. Gomez’s sermons must be as dull as Leslie’s adaptation of this charming tale.

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* “The Lilies of the Field,”

New Community Center, 2025 Alton Parkway, Irvine. 8:15 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $12-$14. Ends Nov. 15. (949) 460-2926. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

Tony Grace: Homer Smith

Becki Henry: Mother Maria Marthe

Debbie Thompson: Sister Albertine

Matt Morrison: Father Gomez

Erika Dittner: Lupe Gonzales

Larry Yorty: Orville Livingston

A Pathway Theater Company production of the drama by F. Andrew Leslie, based on William E. Barrett’s novel. Directed by John Haggard. Scenic design: Brad Morton. Lighting design: Greg Anderson. Sound design: Dana Lundy.