"The Night of the Iguana," A Noise Within, Glendale, CA

Tennessee Williams’ magnificent The Night of the Iguana, directed by Michael Murray for A Noise Within, reminds us that the absurd is both funny and tragic.

It shows us that happiness - if not God - resides in the details. Succor found in hammocks and sunsets, cold water and night swims at in the ocean. Errant, wayward reverends going almost a day without a drink, a widow running a resort, a New England granddaughter selling a watercolor, her New England grandfather finishing a poem, a randy Texas teenager losing her virginity.

It’s when the characters dare to figure out their lives that all hell breaks loose.

The Reverend Shannon (Geoff Elliott) tries without success to exorcise demons (young women, alcohol).

He seeks sanctuary at the Hotel Costa Verde in southern Mexico. The recently widowed Maxine Faulk (Deborah Strang) runs the place with lascivious resolve if not an iron fist. She’s all too happy to see the Reverend; she’s lonely and, well, they have a past. Problem is, Hannah Jelkes (Jill Hill) appears with her grandfather, Jonathan Coffin aka Nonno (Tom Fitzpatrick) and firefly sparks sizzle between the New England spinster and the randy Reverend.

The story gets its traction when current attempts at exorcism run head-on into prior guilt and remorse. Shannon is complex and tortured. Elliott makes him, initially, at least, Kevin Costner handsome and breezy; the worse for wear but certainly redeemable. It’s when he slowly peels away his back-story and we watch the previously-ebbed madness flow as inevitable as rum-and-cokes and the ocean’s tide that we understand what an extraordinary character that Williams created.

Strang, too, made her character Moll Flanders funny, able to laugh at life, strong enough to run the resort, resourceful enough to get by emotionally, patient enough to wait for the Reverend. But her unraveling, though not as obvious and high-voltage as the reverends, was nonetheless a jolt.

Hill’s Hannah was low-key mercurial (her posture reminded me of a thermometer). At first she was the good New Englander, cultured and empathetic. But her past, too, included a bout of madness. She was fragile and charming, conniving and stalwart. You felt for her because perhaps she had the farthest to fall from grace. Who knew?

It’s a story whose magnitude sneaks up on you. At first you think it’s going to begin like something out of John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row or Tortilla Flat. And then things get dark.

It’s to the credit of Murray and his fine cast that the darkness falls slowly and subtly, like a long, languorous sunset. It’s not an upbeat story, not by a long shot. But it is an uplifting one because its reminds me of William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech (“he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance”).

Performances are Thursday – Saturday, 8PM, 2PM, Saturday & Sunday,, and 7PM, Sunday. The show runs until May 25. Tickets are $36-40. The Theatre is located at 234 Brand Boulevard, Glendale. For more information call (818) 240-0910 or visit www.anoisewithin.org.