‘Leaving Iowa’ at Laguna Playhouse is stuck in sitcom-land

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Even before Tennessee Williams coined the term “memory play,” playwrights had long indulged in leisurely strolls down memory lane. An unforgettable example of the form is Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful,” a comedic yet wrenching odyssey of an elderly widow’s return to the idealized birthplace of her youth.

Spike Manton and Tim Clue traverse the same well-beaten, arguably overtraveled path in their nostalgic comedy “Leaving Iowa,” now receiving its West Coast premiere at the Laguna Playhouse. But although “Iowa” has flashes of Foote’s humanism and humor, it more often smacks of TV sitcom, to its considerable detriment.

The writers, who both have roots in stand-up comedy, met while attending college in Peoria, Ill. (the obvious irony being that “Iowa” might play very well there). And their firsthand knowledge of America’s heartland is evident in this play. Unfortunately, so is their tendency to go for laughs over verisimilitude.

In this case, the sentimental journey is undertaken by Boston journalist Don (Kevin Symons), who returns to his Iowa birthplace to scatter his father’s ashes. Dad (Gregory North) has been dead three years, but somehow Don’s sister (Erin Bennett) and mother (Jill Brennan) just haven’t gotten around to the task.

For the drama to proceed, one has to accept the dubious premise that Mom and Sis don’t accompany Don on his eschatological errand. As an excuse, we are given a hint that Don must take this trip alone as some kind of expiation for a past guilt. In the second act, we learn that Don’s “sin” was missing his father’s funeral -- not through choice, but because a snowstorm stranded him. As far as motivations go, that seems a bit thin. The fact that Don has no substantive or unresolved issues with his father is a missed dramatic opportunity, one of several in the play.

As Don wanders the highways and byways in search of an appropriate final resting place, the action periodically flashes back to a vacation in his boyhood -- a blazing hot mid-July car trip during which his family encounters an onslaught of eccentrics who would make the characters in “Newhart” seem subdued. JJ Rodgers and Roy Abramsohn, clad in Dwight Richard Odle’s whimsical costumes, play the numerous supporting characters, including an Amish couple at a flea market and a chatty waitress and greasy cook at a rural diner -- cartoons one and all.

Painted like a child’s drawing, John Berger’s set, set off by Paulie Jenkins’ vivid lighting, strikes an appropriately artificial tone for the play’s over-the-top antics. David Edwards’ spot-on sound design combines highway dissonance with pastoral murmurs.

Clue, who also directs, never fails to amplify the farcical in his alternately funny and strident staging. As a result, Rodgers and Abramsohn sometimes needlessly overplay their already stereotypical characters.

Brennan and Bennett do fine work as the indefatigably cheerful mom and tirelessly bratty sister. However, only Don and Dad emerge as truly credible characters in an otherwise stock repertory. North’s bombastically enthusiastic dad ultimately breaks your heart, while Symons’ wry everyman proves an amiable tour guide through the play’s familiar terrain.

‘Leaving Iowa,’ Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Also 7 p.m. Nov. 30 and Dec. 7-14. $25 to $65. (949) 497-2787, Ext. 1, or www.lagunaplayhouse.com. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

-- F. Kathleen Foley