Harrowed Lives in Search of a Sort of ‘Balm’

Nearly three decades after its premiere, “Balm in Gilead,” Lanford Wilson’s daring, uncompromising portrait of an all-night New York diner and its lowlife denizens, still has the power to shock and astonish.

Under Allen Williams’ assured staging, Camelot Artists’ suitably raucous revival at the Skylight Theatre leaves that issue in no doubt. Wilson’s quirky love story between a ditsy Midwest transplant (Amy Chaffee) and her cocky drug peddler (David O’Donnell, sharing the role with Chris Devlin) unfolds with considerable poignancy amid the clamor of hookers, pimps, pushers and panhandlers.

The squalor spills out into the street, as some of the seedier characters assemble in a pre-show improv played out before the arriving audience. Inside, Victoria Profitt’s retro set and J. Kent Inasy’s moody lighting create a naturalistic milieu aggressively punctured by Wilson’s well-placed sequences of luminously fractured reality. These surreal intrusions include a tryst in the girl’s apartment (witnessed and commented on by the assembled cast), and the eerie entrance of howling trick-or-treaters during a particularly harrowing sequence.

The show is brought convincingly to life by a whopping 30-member ensemble (with another seven in double-cast roles)--an elegant stopgap balm for the Actor Employment Problem. While the earmarks for Beverly Hills Playhouse acting students are unmistakable, that’s not a criticism when the product is this polished and compelling.

* “Balm in Gilead,” Skylight Theatre, 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 13. $20. (323) 666-2202. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.