There’s not a lot to look forward to in McCarthy, Texas, one of those little towns that time forgot. But it’s coming up on the 20th anniversary of the death of short-lived matinee idol James Dean, and the walls in the luncheonette area of the Kressmont five-and-dime are festooned with seasonal decorations in preparation for the meeting of the Disciples of Dean, a sextet of now middle-aged women who are trying to convince themselves they are as young and vibrant as ever.

Ed Graczyk’s Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean ,directed by Ruff Yeager, plays through Sept. 30 at 6th@Penn Theatre.

The small stage is crammed with memory-inducing artifacts of the ’50s and ’70s, as the play moves back and forth between 1955 and 1975 to tell the stories of these women, most of whom have created their own realities to replace facts too uncomfortable to admit.

Bible verse-spouting widow Juanita (Jill Drexler) runs the five-and-dime and maintains both her piousness and blinders about the character of deceased husband Sidney to all who will listen.

Sissy (Leigh Scarritt, in long blonde wig), who has traded on “scandalous” short skirts and boobs “like watermelons” for years, has a sad secret and an almost sadder belief that she could succeed in the Ice Capades tryouts she’s just read about.

Mona (Robin Christ) has spun her claim to fame – appearing as an extra in Dean’s last film, Giant – into an elaborate fantasy about being the mother of James Dean’s never-seen child, conveniently named Jimmy Dean.

Stella May (Wendy Waddell) shows up in a smashing print caftan, evidence that she married rich but isn’t necessarily happily. And Edna Louise (Danielle Rhoads), plain in her drab manicurist’s uniform and pregnant for the seventh time, is the only one of the sextet who feels no need to pretend.

The appearance of a mysterious woman who emerges from a yellow Porsche, tall and elegant in a white pantsuit, gives the ladies something new to think about for a while – until she begins to reveal some of those uncomfortable truths.

Come Back is about lies, damned lies and trying to make it through the night: heavy topics, handled with some delicacy and much humor, thanks to Graczyk’s nicely drawn characters and a splendid cast that plays them just right.

Robin Christ’s self-deluded Mona is the center of this cockeyed universe. Caroming most directly off Mona is Juanita, who sees everyone’s truth but her own; surrounding them, the other returnees travel like constellations, occasionally colliding like bumper cars.

Meanwhile, in that other, earlier universe, the young Mona, Joe and Sissy replay the truths that gave rise to the lies.

This is as fine a production of this play as you will see. Kudos to Yeager for his fine direction and to this excellent ensemble cast.

Caveat: Small theaters require creative staging. If you sit in the back row on the right aisle, you’ll be deafened by the five-and-dime door, attached to the seating structure and slammed by actors as they enter and exit.

Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean plays through Sept. 30 at 6th@Penn Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinee Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (619) 688-9210 or visit www.6thatPenn.com

Broken dreams and old humiliations are on display in local playwright Ruff Yeager’s 2005 Bronze, playing through Sept. 26 at 6th@Penn Theatre, directed by the playwright.

The scene is a San Diego diner, where foul-mouthed young ice skater Cheryl (Jeannine Marquie) holds three people hostage. Olympic hopeful Cheryl was expected to take home the gold (“Scotty Hamilton said so, and he’s god”); instead she fell and had to settle for the bronze.

Now she has wheedled a pistol from Joe (Geoffrey Yeager), a Target security guard, and used it to threaten him and two other people: Maggie (Kim Strassburger), owner of the diner, and the harmless addict Marty (John Martin), whose moments of lucidity provide much-appreciated comic relief from the tension.

In flashbacks, it becomes evident that Cheryl’s pursuit of her mother’s dream of Olympic gold is an attempt to keep up with her brother, soon to be graduated from medical school as a gynecologist (“Dr. Pussy,” Cheryl calls him).

But Cheryl, with all her bravado, doesn’t want to kill anyone. She wants them to share their humiliations with her, to help her lighten the unbearable load of the third-place finish. So she forces each to tell a story of personal degradation.

It’s a tribute to Yeager’s writing, which acknowledges a plain debt to the plots of Petrified Forest and When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? and includes echoes of American playwriting greats Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee, that Bronze comes across as original and riveting theater.

It helps that Yeager has a seasoned cast, three of whom were in the first incarnation of the play at Sledgehammer Theatre. Strassburger’s solid, rational mother figure brings a steadying influence; in fact, she almost talks the distraught skater out of the gun.

Geoffrey Yeager (the director’s son) is fine as “guy’s guy” Joe, whose clumsy autograph requests precipitates the problem. Martin has carefully crafted his interpretation of the brain-addled Marty so that every look and gesture conveys meaning.

New to the cast is Marquie, who not only looks great in her flashy skating outfit, but convinces as Cheryl, whose disappointment has finally reached the explosive stage.

Kudos to Yeager for a fine play and excellent direction, and thanks to his fine cast.

Those in search of good theater need look no further than the Yeager-directed double-header at 6th@Penn.

Bronze plays through Sept. 26, 2007 at 6th@Penn Theatre. Shows Sunday at 7 p.m.; Monday through Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. For tickets call (619) 688-9210 or visit www.sixthatpenn.com.

Pastoral and courtly life, spirituality and passion, nobility, baseness, love in the forest and overarching silliness abound in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, playing through Sept. 23 at Coronado Playhouse in the 11th incarnation of its annual free Shakespeare series. Keith A. Anderson directs.

Most of the action takes place in the Forest of Arden, where the rightful duke (Martin M. White) has lived since his brother Frederick (Marty Greenberg) usurped the crown and banished him.

The corruption of court life, represented by Duke Frederick, eventually drives the other major characters into the forest as well. Frederick banishes the rightful duke’s daughter Rosalind (Victoria Mature) and loses his own daughter Celia (Elizabeth Mander-Wilson) in the bargain when the inseparable friends take off for the forest together – Rosalind dressed en homme and calling herself Ganymede, Celia using the name Aliena.

Also on the “corrupt” side is Oliver (Brian Terry), older son of Sir Rowland de Boys, a supporter of the banished duke. Oliver, whose father has asked him to give his younger brother Orlando (Pete Shaner) a good education, has ignored this charge. Orlando asks his brother for his half of the inheritance. He gets it after he bests the court wrestler Charles (Duke) in a match, and promptly goes off in search of Rosalind.

Standouts in this production are Shaner and Mature, whose Orlando and Rosalind are a pleasure to watch (though it’s a shame we didn’t get to hear Metropolitan Opera Auditions winner Mature sing). Always-reliable Mander-Wilson is excellent as Celia. Jessica Seaman and Nick McElroy provide some laughs as the shepherd couple Phebe and Silvius.

Shakespeare lifted the plot of As You Like It from Thomas Lodge’s popular 1590 novel Rosalynde, adding wit, memorable lines and practically a stage full of couples headed for the altar by the end. It’s Shakespearean froth, a bonbon in which feuding characters reconcile (the dukes, the brothers), lots of lovers find each other, and a good time is had by all.

As You Like It plays through Sept. 23, 2007, at Coronado Playhouse as part of its 11th annual free Shakespeare series. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. For ticket information visit http://www.coronadoplayhouse.com/as-you-like-it/index.html.