'IDLE WHEELS' CHRONICLES ABUSE VIA GRIPPING PERFORMANCES.

Byline: Daryl H. Miller Daily News Theater Critic

Within the first 20 minutes of "Idle Wheels," it's evident how the story will end. The time in between is well-spent, however, in the play's West Coast premiere, grippingly performed by the Road Theatre Company in North Hollywood.

The play reveals another side of its author, James Morrison, known to sci-fi lovers as the commander of a squadron of futuristic fighter pilots in Fox Broadcasting's "Space: Above and Beyond." Written in 1984 and revised several times since then, "Idle Wheels" takes an unusual approach to a couple of oft-addressed topics in this era of theater as therapy: alcoholism and domestic violence.

Morrison (who, by the way, does not perform in this production) sets his drama in a cramped mobile home in the chill isolation of Alaska in 1973. Dorris Hetrick wears a shiner from a recent free-for-all with her bored, hard-drinking husband, Pinky. Her son by another man, Buzzy, is old enough to leave home and is, in fact, itching to flee Pinky's boorish insults. But he stays as his mother's protector, even though she insists she doesn't need one.

It's difficult to sit through what happens next, but it's the sort of stop-the-madness, social-awareness theater that just might light a fire in your belly.

Morrison puts a twist on an otherwise straightforward tale of abuse by incorporating American Indian symbolism and spiritual belief. Buzzy, the son, has become all but obsessed with the legends of his Inuit neighbors, perhaps as a substitute for the traditional foundations of family and decency that have been ripped out from beneath him.

For we non-American Indians in the audience, it's difficult to gauge whether the Inuit mythology is authentic, or whether American Indians might find it a blasphemous appropriation of their culture.

But it adds dimension to Buzzy's state of confusion, and Pinky's venomous reaction to it underscores the insensitivity and prejudice that have played out in Alaska as immigrants from the lower 48 states infiltrated the native culture.

Things come to a head during a party for friends Buck and Dodie Doucette and their daughter, Sherry, just returning home from her first stretch away to study at USC.

Downing a seemingly endless number of tall, stiff drinks, Pinky becomes increasingly belligerent, pawing Dodie and Sherry and making vulgar innuendoes. Witnessing this (along with everyone else's passive acceptance of it), Buzzy comes closer and closer to his breaking point.

A cooling-off period outside with Sherry, his old girlfriend, leads to a revelation that shatters his last shred of faith in humanity.

As Buzzy, Steven Sennett is a quiet, intelligent young man overwhelmed by the contradictions in his life - on the one hand, the gargantuan beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, a veritable Garden of Eden in his eyes, and on the other, the sort of ugly human behavior that scars everything in its path.

As mom Dorris, Laura Gardner is a feisty, fun-loving gal who does seem to hold some power (though clearly not enough) over Pinky.

As Pinky, Patrick James Clarke is high-spirited, with a certain scruffy charm. And he registers genuine hurt at the fact that Buzzy regards Buck as more of a father figure than himself. But when drink takes hold, the cold, hard demon it unleashes is truly frightful to behold.

Under Richard Herd's direction, the action surges and recedes in ever-greater waves of emotion, until the final, overwhelming one. It's all so realistic (right down to the circles of rust painted around the rivets on the trailer's exterior in Walt Gilmore's set, decorated by Jillian Blaine) that viewers feel trapped in this situation - silent witnesses to a tragedy they know is coming and want desperately to prevent.

THE FACTS

The show: "Idle Wheels."

Where: The Road Theatre Company, Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Fridays through Sundays; through March 24.

Running time: Two hours, 30 minutes; one intermission.

Tickets: $15, available by calling [phone].

Our rating: Three Stars.