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Verdigris

Reviewed by Martin Hernandez

Theatre West

Through April 19

In 1972 in Edgar, Oklahoma, acting student/narrator Richard (Adam Conger) takes a job as a caretaker for Margaret (Sheila Shaw), a wheelchair-bound widow, who will pay Richard’s college tuition for his services. But like the greenish coating that envelopes brass after age or neglect –- from which playwright-actor Jim Beaver draws the title of his semi-autobiographical melodrama –- something similar has encrusted Margaret’s heart and soul. While she may be disabled physically, Margaret is no invalid, running a few small businesses from the bedroom/office of her dilapidated house and running roughshod over her cadre of harassed yet loyal helpers. She constantly belittles the aptly named Burley siblings — housekeeper May Bee (Corinne Shor) and handyman Ben Bo (Dylan Vigus), over their weight — and disparages her drunken brother Jockey (Beaver), who runs a still in the hills and loves sampling his own product. When her son Carl (David Goldstein), who subsidizes her mostly failing enterprises, threatens to put Margaret in a nursing home, she enlists Richard and the others to stave off that unseemly consequence.

Beaver has numerous intriguing subplots to cover, from Richard’s sad history that prevents him from committing to his girlfriend Linda (Katie Adler), to Margaret’s contentious relationship with Carl, among others.

This makes for a lengthy and often tedious evening that some judicious trimming could help alleviate. Still, director Mark W. Travis has drawn some charming performances from his cast: from Shaw’s Margaret, whose crotchety demeanor may be how she protects herself from emotional pain, to Beaver’s Jockey, who winkingly confesses to Richard that “it’s hard to stay sober under the weight of all I know,” and to Shor’s May Bee, who bares her gentle soul to Richard in a very touching turn in Act 2.

And while the denouement leans to the histrionic, there are plenty of laughs to go around, with Margaret’s zingers targeting friends and foes alike with no discrimination. Originally produced by the same company in 1985, the play may show its age but like Margaret, it still has some funny and heartfelt punches to deliver.

Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through April 19, (323) 851-7977, www.theatrewest.org