THEATER REVIEW : Island in the Stream of Time : “Spoon River Anthology” paints a portrait of small-town America emerging from its adolescence.

BURBANK — As recent arrivals in the American melting pot struggle to preserve their heritage, the descendants of previous immigrants sometimes ignore their own heritage--their country of origin and the decades of their family’s Americanization.

When Edgar Lee Masters wrote “Spoon River Anthology” in 1915, America was just emerging from its teen-age years, about to be pushed into maturity by the social and political forces of the 20th Century. The blending of cultures and ideologies was part of this growth.

Through the voices of inhabitants of the local cemetery on the outskirts of Masters’ Spoon River, and in this production at Burbank Little Theatre, the era is brought to vivid life. In 1915, the hidden 19th-Century passions and dreams still hold sway in the memories of these spirits, but the new century is putting its imprint on the old, and these voices speak as much of the future as the past.

Charles Aidman’s adaptation (with original songs by Aidman and Naomi Caryl Hirshhorn), originally conceived for Theatre West, is theatrically rich and treats Masters’ poetic images with affection and respect.

Director Laurel Adams is no less dedicated to the honest confessions and fiery glow of these characters’ remembered passage through small-town life in the America that existed between the Civil War and World War I. The simple romances, the illicit couplings, the political chicanery, the uptight religiosity, the tragedy of lives young and old are carefully drawn, under Adams’ guidance, full of intricate detail.

The Spoon River shades are not those of political people, any more than most people are political today, but their little dramas are the stuff that illuminates history. Adams and her cast are aware of this and make it the core of the performance.

Six actors (Kiffen Madden-Lunsford, Margaret Marca, Helene McCardle, Bess Meisler, James Newell and Stuart Lancaster), along with balladeers Dennis Connor and Sandra Fleck, portray more than three score residents of the Midwestern village of Spoon River. Each is an incisive portrait, a tribute to the versatility of the company.

Under Joe Witt’s painterly lighting design on Michael Eugene Fairman’s fluid graveyard setting, this revival is a strong reminder of who we were, and that we haven’t changed all that much.

Where and When What: “Spoon River Anthology.” Location: Burbank Little Theatre, George Izay Park, 1111 W. Olive Ave., Burbank. Hours: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 2 p.m. Sundays. (Sign- language performance Oct. 24.) Ends Oct. 31. Price: $12. Call: (818) 954-9858.