Review: Is the past ever over? The two estranged half-brothers in Samuel D. Hunter's 'Grangeville' find out

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Jerry and Arnold, two estranged half-brothers, are forced by circumstances to be back in touch.Their mother, whom Jerry has been looking after, is dying, and there are medical bills that need to be straightened out.Arnold, an artist living with his husband in the Netherlands, doesn’t know why Jerry is reaching out to him.

He left Idaho a lifetime ago and would rather not have anything more to do with his abusive upbringing in podunk Grangeville.Samuel D.Hunter, the bard of Idaho, where many of his plays are set, including “A Bright New Boise,” “The Whale” and “Little Bear Ridge Road,” grapples in a novel way with this territory in “Grangeville,” which is having its West Coast premiere at the Ruskin Group Theatre in a beautifully acted production directed by John Perrin Flynn.The setting for this two-hander is more abstract than usual for Hunter, who is one of the theater’s outstanding American realists.

But the geography is more mental than physical in a work that takes place largely through telephone and video calls.Jerry (Jeff LeBeau), the older of the two brothers, has a guilty conscience.He was a bully to Arnold (Tim Cummings) when the two were growing up in a trailer park with their mother, who had a knack for choosing bad men.

Arnold put an ocean between himself and his family, but his alienation from his past has drained all the color from his life.His art has suffered and he finds himself at a creative standstill.The early pieces that established his reputation were dioramas of local spots around Grangeville, such as a tattoo parlor, a pawn show and a Dairy Queen.

But then he turned to more abstract painting, and European interest in his work dropped off.It wasn’t long before he lost the thread of his inspiration.Arnold has been having difficulties in his marriage.

Bram, his husband, has a demanding job at a museum in Rotterdam and Arnold’s bitt...