GRANGEVILLE


Can two brothers estranged for over half their lives possibly find a path back towards reconciliation after decades of accumulated pain, anger and resentments? It is this question that is at the heart of Grangeville, Idaho-born-and-bred playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s most recent mini-Midwest-masterpiece, now getting an absolutely superb West Coast Premiere at the Ruskin Group Theatre.

Hunter’s latest begins with a phone call from older half-brother Jerry (Jeff LeBeau), who stayed behind in Grangeville, married, and fathered two children, to visual artist Arnold (Tim Cummings), who fled to the Netherlands in his early 20s where he found not only a certain renown for his hometown-depticting dioramas but a life partner in Dutch husband Bram.

Jerry has called Arnold to request help with their hospitalized mother’s paperwork, and though Arnie seems willing at first to at least look into the matter, as soon as Jerry brings up the past, and the regrets their mother has recently expressed about not having done more to protect her younger son from his physically abusive father, Arnie informs Jerry in no uncertain terms that while he’ll look into the hospital bills, he has no intention of pursuing any sort of reconciliation, either with his mother or with the brother who bullied him mercilessly throughout their childhoods.

Perhaps not surprisingly given Grangeville’s 90-minute running time, this isn’t the last time Jerry and Arnie will talk, and thank goodness for that, because the more we learn about the two brothers, about Jerry’s failing marriage and Arnold’s seemingly happy one, about the sacrifices the older sibling has made as his mother’s caretaker and the wash-my-hands-of-it-all attitude of his younger brother, the more we long for them to find a way to, if not heal past wounds, then at least to reconnect.

Not only that, but the better we get to know the two siblings, the clearer it becomes how much more there is to each of them than immediately meets the eye.

It helps enormously that playwright Hunter gives each brother a chance to share the stage with his life partner, and in an inspired theatrical touch (one that would almost certainly not work if Grangeville were a movie and not a play), it’s Cummings who gets to slip figuratively into Jerry’s wife Stacey’s shoes in a scene between the estranged spouses, and later LeBeau who goes from Idahoan to Nederlander in an equally pivotal scene between the intercultural husbands.

Following in the footsteps of such play-writing masters of Middle American life as Arthur Miller and William Inge, Samuel D. Hunter finds ways for big-city audiences to see themselves in his characters’ small-town lives including those of gay characters whom a closeted playwright like Inge could only hint at.

Grangeville is no exception, and the Ruskin Group Theatre has scored a major coup in giving West Coast audiences their first look at a play that only just over a year ago got its off-Broadway World Premiere.

The Ruskin also made the thoroughly savvy decision to bring Rogue Machine Founding Artistic Director John Perrin Flynn onboard to direct Grangeville with the same sensitivity and subtlety he brought to Hunters’s A Bright New Boise, A Permanent Image, and Pocatello.

And what phenomenal work he has elicited from Cummings (an Arnold as prickly as his Stacey is a woman worth fighting for) and LeBeau (his Jerry a decent man facing up to his past failings and his Bram as openhearted as a man can be) in performances that only grow in nuance and depth as the play progresses.

Stephanie Kerley Schwartz’s remarkable scenic design suggests Midwest bleakness (and a weathered trailer door) before revealing a stunning eleventh-hour surprise, and her costumes suit each brother to a T.

Dan Weingarten’s striking lighting design and Keith Stevenson’s emotions-enhancing sound design are top-of-the-line too, with Jan Bryant and Dan Speaker’s stunt/fight coordination coming in handy when between brothers push comes to shove.

Grangeville features props by stage manager Nicole Millar, Schwartz, and Ryan Wilson. Tuffet Schmelzle is dialect coach. Dierdre O’Connor is assistant stage manager. Judith Borne is publicist.

Grangeville is the ninth Samuel D. Hunter play to hold me spellbound, and if Arthur Miller is by far my favorite 20th-century playwright, his contemporary successor may well be my 21st-century fave. As compelling as it is moving and as gorgeously acted as L.A. theater gets, Grangeville is a West Coast Premiere no theater lover will want to miss.

Ruskin Group Theatre, 2800 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica. Through July 12. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00, Sundays at 2:00.
www.ruskingrouptheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
May 29, 2026
Photos: John Perrin Flynn

 

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