A Chance to Get to Know ‘The Boys Next Door’

A compassionate but unsentimentalized portrait of the developmentally disabled, Tom Griffin’s “The Boys Next Door” is firmly grounded in everyday experience. Nevertheless, an extraordinary reality shift occurs during performances of the play by Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre. It’s not so much a transformation in the characters, but in the audience.

It begins early, with nervous giggles during a dizzying monologue in which Arnold (Rudolph Willrich), one of four mentally impaired roommates in an assisted living apartment, recounts his convoluted grocery shopping strategy. The giggles give way to chuckles at Norman’s (Dirk Blocker) attempts to sneak a box of doughnuts past the residents’ watchful social worker, Jack (Grinnell Morris). The sight of schizophrenic Barry (Joseph Fuqua) giving fake golf lessons to characters played by John Fink and Rojan Disparte elicits unabashed laughs. And by the time the most severely retarded patient, Lucien (Lance E. Nichols), supplies his own sound effects for the vacuum cleaner he refuses to plug in, his rendition draws applause.

Griffin’s deceptively breezy jokes have clued us in that it’s OK to laugh at these characters, as we recognize their conundrums are but simplified extensions of our own daily struggles. In the process, he’s brought us that much closer to accepting them as fellow human beings. To cement the connection, poetic interior vignettes allow them to transcend their disabilities. In a magical ballet between Norman and his similarly impaired girlfriend (Amy Ecklund), physical awkwardness gives way to idealized grace; later, a stunning soliloquy from Lucien articulates his role in connecting the highest and lowest rungs of the species.

Accepting them as people we care about, rather than distant objects of pity, paves the way for the play’s more sobering elements. In the midst of his patients’ amusing antics, Jack’s simple, grim reminder that “they don’t change” reverberates like a depth charge. The consequences of that developmental stasis become tragically clear in later events--especially the grim reunion between Barry and his abusive father (Dana Elcar), a character revised with the author’s permission to accommodate the actor’s blindness.

Mining emotional extremes from our complex attitudes toward the disabled is familiar territory for director Rod Lathim, who pioneered accessible stage opportunities with his Santa Barbara-based Access Theatre, and he continues that mission here by casting several supporting performers with disabilities.

Having previously staged the play with Access Theatre, Lathim illuminates its potent issues and emotional currents with a sure hand. However, first-act pacing is hampered by awkward blackouts between the briefer scenes; simple lighting shifts could effect smoother transitions. Toning down the occasional preachiness in Jack’s narration would make a good thing even better.

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* “The Boys Next Door,” Laurel Theatre, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends June 3. $20-$35. (805) 667-2900. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.