A few minutes into the Saturday matinee of Michael Healey's three hander the third character appeared onstage, the actor nearly unrecognizable in a rumpled flannel shirt and sunbleached baseball cap. An older audience member in the back row, not yet immersed in the story, murmured breathlessly, reverentially, as if his favorite baseball player had stepped up to the plate, "Hal Landon."

Indeed. Landon Jr. has more than earned the near-sports-legend status and the adoration of his fans, yet with this production he outdoes himself. As part generous-hearted, part martinet Canadian farmer Morgan, Landon is immersed to his fingertips in the onstage life.

His dialogue sounds fresh, his physicality is convincing: Landon could easily be both fieldworker and nurse. Happily he is assisted by the finely detailed work of Jimmie Ray Weeks as Morgan's mentally damaged buddy, Angus, as well as the show's other star: James Youmans' farm kitchen set, its walls semi-transparent to reveal the surrounding grassy fields.

Martin Benson directs this production tenderly, letting the feel of farm life surround the characters and the audience, allowing the events of the play to crest faultlessly, nurturing the Damon and Pythias relationship...