'BOOK OF DAYS' IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

HOW DID this play elude the radar?

Admittedly, playwright Lanford Wilson (``Tally's Folly,'' ``The Hot L Baltimore,'' ``Burn This'') may not strike oil every time he drives a spade into the soil. But ``Book of Days,'' his 1998 ``Our Town'' homage, is an awfully well-written piece of work. That it took six years for an L.A. production to surface is quite surprising, but it's here now and director Stuart Rogers and his Theatre Tribe ensemble play it for all it's worth. And then some.

Part whodunit, part personal crusade, part a celebration of stage performance, the play is a crackling good evening. Rogers has cast it superbly. Wilson's characters - who, I suspect, might be thinly written - come expertly to life, and the cozy Theatre Tribe stage adjacent to the El Portal contains the action smoothly as well. This play probably doesn't belong in a much bigger house.

There's something distinctly wistful in Wilson's tale of a suspicious death in a small town. The bookkeeper of a cheese factory moonlights playing the title role in a community theater production of George Bernard Shaw's ``Saint Joan.'' Life revolves around hunting season and church sermons. When a character tells another character that he has unearthed dirt via the Internet, it's a bit of an eye opener. Oh, right. We're in the present, after all.

In Rogers' production, the burg of Dublin, Mo., population 4,780, is a two-level box with some wood planking and very few props. The same setting serves for a church, a forest, the factory and a rehearsal hall. Grover's Corners, constructed out of thin air and imagination by any ensemble of Thornton Wilder's ``Our Town,'' easily could be this nondescript.

Ruth Hoch (played by Mary Thornton) may make the mistake of singing a song from ``Carousel'' for her ``Saint Joan'' audition, but she's no dummy. Once she burrows into the plight of Joan of Arc - and understands the value of a crusade - Ruth becomes a veritable pit bull. Since nearly everyone else in town is either hiding skeletons or is afraid of bucking the influential Rev. Bobby Groves (Scott Ashby), Ruth's determination becomes essential.

Walt Bates (James Handy), the owner of the cheese factory, dies in a questionable hunting accident. This sets off a potential power struggle between the factory's manager, Len (Nathan Brooks Burgess) and Bates' feckless, philandering son, James (Thomas Burr). Since Ruth doesn't buy the hunting accident explanation and since she's married to Len, things start to get complicated in a hurry.

Thornton's steely Ruth anchors the cast. Playing a woman who bulldozes through her own self-doubts, Thornton conveys steely resolve, never martyrdom. She partners smartly with Burgess' less-assured Len and with Ashby's unctuous Rev. Groves.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

BOOK OF DAYS - Four stars

Where: Theatre Tribe, 5267 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; through May 29.

Tickets: $15. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: A play that owes a debt to Thornton Wilder's ``Our Town'' and leaves it in the dust. Theatre Tribe and director Stuart Rogers deliver one of the best small theater productions of the year.