Imagine the confluence of some of the best actors in San Diego, gathered in an intimate theater and acting their hearts out.
Imagine no more. It’s not a dream. Tiny 6th@Penn Theatre has another hit on its hands (through Sept. 30) in Ed Graczyk’s 1982 play, “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean.”
As sensitively staged by Ruff Yeager, the action, set in a small town in Texas in 1975, concerns six women who gather to commemorate heartthrob film actor James Dean on the 20th anniversary of his death (he crashed his Porsche at high speed). The best kind of humor arises from the playwright’s gentle caricature of these southern women ” think “Crimes of the Heart” and, in the extreme, “Greater Tuna.”
Mona (Robin Christ), who works in the 5 & Dime, was an extra in Dean’s final movie, “Giant,” which was filmed nearby. She claims her unseen “retarded” 19-year-old son is Dean’s. Christ brilliantly portrays the self-deluded woman as if her condition borders on mental illness. Before the evening is over she rips one’s heart out.
Most of the women keep secrets from themselves, secrets the others choose to tolerate. Store proprietor Juanita (Jill Drexler) has conferred sainthood on her late husband. Sissy (Leigh Scarritt) sports the biggest boobs and shortest skirts in Texas and claims her husband is working on an oil rig in Saudi Arabia. Edna Louise (the really pregnant Danielle Rhoads), pregnant with her seventh child, thinks her flowered mini-dress still fits. Stella May (Wendy Waddell), married to the richest man, thinks she has the best life.
The truth-teller is a transgendered woman named Joanne (Susan Stratton), whom no one recognizes initially as Joe, who was cruelly attacked and eventually run out of town 20 years earlier. Three excellent young actors, Victoria Tecca, Zoe Katz and Michael Cullen, portray the young Mona, Sissy and Joe as youngsters who once lip-synched songs of the McGuire Sisters.
The dramatic tension builds as secrets are revealed, and in the end the three true friends overcome prejudice to share a deeper reunion. I cannot imagine better portrayals of all the characters, whose accents are bang-on, thanks to the employment of Annie Hinton as dialect coach. Nick Fouch originally created the realistic, detailed set for the Sledgehammer Theatre world premiere of Yeager’s “Bronze,” which received a new script award in 2005 from the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle.
Also directed by Yeager, “Bronze” plays upon the same set Sunday through Wednesday, through Sept. 26, while “Come Back to the 5 & Dime” plays Thursday through Sunday through Sept. 30.
For information and tickets, call (619) 688-9210 or visit www.6thatpenn.com.