Being prolific is no guarantor of fame.

It's a good season for midstate fans of writer Ira Levin.  Last weekend, Theatre Harrisburg rang the curtain down on Levin's long-running Broadway hit, "Deathtrap," and Oyster Mill Playhouse just opened with his "Dr. Cook's Garden."

The medical ethics melodrama has much in common with its more-famous, more-playful cousin: Both are tales of older and younger men in the same profession who are close before a falling out.

Dr. Cook is revered by nearly everyone in his idyllic little Vermont town, including Jim Tennyson, who became a doctor because of Cook.  But when Jim returns for a rare visit, he is stunned to realize that his beloved mentor has been practicing a combination of euthanasia and executions.

Despite a stellar cast that included Burl Ives and Keir Dullea, "Dr. Cook's Garden" lasted only eight performances on Broadway in 1967.  "Dr. Cook's Garden" might have done better today, an age grappling with the thorny issues of genetic research and cloning.

There are strong points to the OMP production, and getting to know yet another work by a master writer of thrillers is always welcome.  Larry Wineland directs the production with a sure hand and an obvious love.

The set, designed by William F. Jahn and Stephen F.J. Martin is clever.  Candy McDaniel's landscape adds reality to the stage garden.

This is a hard play to perform, chiefly because of the multilayered personality of Dr. Cook.  The highly versatile Mike Stubbs has the dedication of a medical man and his avuncular relationship with his protege down pat.  We're properly stunned to find out there's another side of him and almost swayed by his justification for it.  Stubbs is less effective with the character's psychopathic side.

As the younger doctor visiting his mentor, Steve Anderson veers too soon and too close to hysteria.  But his fear of physical harm in the second act is right on target, and he makes us genuinely fear for Jim Tennyson's soul at play's end.

Drew Peters is probably a bit young for Cook's gardener/town constable.  But his youthful enthusiasm about everything, from his wife's pies to color TV, adds to the suspense as we expect he'll be the one to foil a murder.

Karen Anne Lloyd adds some humor as the gossipy but affable nurse, Bea.  Mary Gutierrez -- who has grown consistently stronger as a performer -- does her best with the thanklessly brief role of Dora, the housekeeper.