'Highlands' needs work on acting and direction

Despite some pleasant technical elements, “My Heart’s In The Highlands,” playing at the Luna Playhouse in Glendale, is not up to this company’s usual quality.

Penned by award-winning Armenian playwright William Saroyan, this piece relates the economic struggles faced by a group of Fresno residents during the opening salvos of World War I. Director Tamar Hovannisian definitely capitalizes on Maro Parian’s scenery and Mark Anthony Goebel’s sound design for intriguing production values.

Parian’s set effectively captures the feel of a low-income, ethnically diverse immigrant population. She has included an authentic looking farmhouse porch, a large tree located center stage and a ramshackle grocery store. Meanwhile, Goebel’s sound effects include incredibly realistic birds taking wing and a second act thunderstorm that makes you reach for an umbrella.

Saroyan’s play, however, requires a group of skilled actors to effectively present his reflections on the human condition. This is where things are lacking. With only a few exceptions, this cast is in way over its head their heads when it comes to presenting anything more than community theater performances.

As Ben and Johnny Alexander, a father who longs to publish poetry and his son, actors Levon Parian and Arthur Parian struggle to produce even rudimentary dramatic moments. The elder Parian, in particular, seems to be at a loss at times for both his lines and any sort of character arc.

The show is also littered with a number of smaller roles which, for the most part, are devoid of believability. And Hovannisian’s direction of group scenes amounts to nothing more than herding people on and offstage with virtually no sense of their individual personalities. Having said that, However, there are three cast members who manage to rise above the rest and create some interesting portrayals.

Jerry Chappell presents a nice cameo as Mr. Wiley, the chatty and easily distracted bicycle-riding postman. As Mr. Kosak, the grumpy grocer with a heart of gold, actor Edgar Allan Poe IV provides a three-dimensional characterization that is deeply touching. Finally, Grant Smith fairly steals the show as Mr. MacGregor, a trumpet-playing escapee from a local “old folks’ seniors home.

MacGregor fancies himself a great thespian and certainly Smith lives up to this with some lovely recitations of Shakespearean material. Unfortunately, he is relegated to miming the trumpet to hauntingly beautiful, yet obviously recorded, solos composed by Armen Ajemyan. Had Hovannisian utilized some sort of stylized direction of these sections, the fact that Smith was not actually performing the music would not have been so jarring.

Commemorating the centennial of William Saroyan’s birth with this rarely performed work is certainly commendable. It’s just that Saroyan’s script and this theater’s audiences are deserving of a better rendition.

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FYI

WHAT: “My Heart’s In The Highlands” by William Saroyan

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 30. No performances March 21 to 23.

WHERE: Luna Playhouse, 3706 San Fernando Road, Glendale.

TICKETS: $25

PHONE: (818) 500-7200 or www.lunaplayhouse.com