Things Are Going Swimmingly in Tuna, Texas

Aunt Pearl’s in the garden with her slingshot, the Smut Snatchers are censoring “A Christmas Carol,” Didi’s Used Weapons is open for last-minute Christmas shopping, and if the sheep behave, Vera Carp is sure to win the holiday yard display contest--if only Sheriff “Rubber Sheets” Givens can nab the Christmas Phantom before he strikes again.

Welcome to “A Tuna Christmas,” where the wacky, weird and somehow oddly dignified residents of the tiny town of Tuna, Texas, are memorably observed by Joe Sears and Jaston Williams in their tour de force at La Mirada Theatre.

Written by Sears, Williams and director Ed Howard, this is the 1989 follow-up to “Greater Tuna,” the comedy that first introduced the fictional town’s folk. Yet Sears and Williams are as fresh as ever, revisiting Tuna’s multiple zanies and fleshing them out with surprising tenderness in this funnier and more substantial sequel.

Sears, a large man of ample girth, and the smaller and slighter Williams, switch unflappably between 22 characters, slowly ambling offstage for high-speed costume changes and casually reappearing.

The show opens at radio station OKKK, where Arles (Williams) and Thurston (Sears) read news and give air time to gun store owner Didi (“If we can’t kill it, it’s immortal”) and humane society do-gooder Petey Fisk (Williams plays both).

At home, Bertha (Sears) is hoping for a happy family Christmas despite a faithless, alcoholic, absentee husband; a probationer son; and his twin, Charlene (both Williams), who’s pining for hypoglycemic theater director Joe Bob (Sears).

Tuna’s town snob, Vera Carp (Williams, in peach satin, blond flip and cat’s-eye glasses), lives across the street; Aunt Pearl (Sears) is plotting mischief with gray-haired Dixie (Williams); R.R. (Sears) is UFO-obsessed; and the Tasty Kreem waitresses--buxom Inita (Sears) and good-time Helen Bedd (Williams)--are thawing hamburger with a hair dryer.

Part of the hilarity is visual: Sears is a howl as elderly Aunt Pearl in orthopedic shoes, a low-slung, pillowy bosom, and flowery dress; and as big Bertha, in bouffant ‘do and lime-green polyester pants. But Sears and Williams transcend burlesque. Beneath Bertha’s comic try for family normalcy is pathos; dotty but dignified Pearl moves with the stately grace of an ocean liner. Williams layers Stanley’s prankish discontent with a despairing edge, and he delicately reveals the bitterly divorced Arles’ yearning vulnerability.

The production is flawlessly complemented by the design staff: set designer Loren Sherman, whose Texas plains panorama frames the stage; Linda Fisher’s comic costumes; Root Choyce’s evocative light design; and Ken Huncovsky’s on-the-money sound design.

*

* “A Tuna Christmas,” McCoy Rigby Entertainment at La Mirada Theatre, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m. through Feb. 7. $34. (562) 944-9801; (714) 994-6310. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.