Michetti Drums Up an Incisive ‘Edward’

It’s great to see a stubborn, rarely produced Bertolt Brecht play revived with the brio director Michael Michetti brings to “Edward II,” a Circle X Theatre Company production at the Actors’ Gang.

Michetti’s staging begins with the sound--to quote an earlier Brecht title--of drums in the night, startling enough to elicit a nervous laugh from the audience. The drummers, Stephanie Bettman on one side of the stage and percussion composer Paul Rudolph on the other, stay busy for much of the evening.

Michetti’s cast of 14 lines the front of the playing space, delivering Brecht’s prologue. We’re in for a retelling of “the troublesome reign of Edward II, king of England, and his lamentable death . . . [and] the fortune and end of his favorite, Gaveston.”

This early work dates to 1924. Brecht and co-author Lion Feuchwanger adapted Christopher Marlowe’s 1592 history play. “Edward II” can be described simply: The king (Connor Trinneer) sends for his beloved, Gaveston (Brian McDonald), and both their fates are sealed. England’s authorities scheme for the throne, pretending to moral outrage. The queen, here named Anne (Jillian Crane), takes a lover, Mortimer (Dominic Hoffman), who gradually rolls out his campaign against Edward.

The adaptation is notable for its relative narrative faithfulness to Marlowe and, paradoxically, its utterly different texture. Brecht’s spiky irregular verse is a world away from Marlowe’s poetics. As director Michetti notes in the program, Brecht’s Edward proves to be more intriguingly defiant, less the passive 14th century homophobia victim, than Marlowe’s dying swan.

Michetti goes in for flexible and useful variations on Brecht’s verfremdungseffekt (“alienation” or distancing effect). The players read the stage directions aloud; battle scenes are stylized beyond realism and certain moments are revealed in silhouette behind an opaque muslin screen.

Brecht once wrote: “The actor doesn’t have to be the man he portrays. He has to describe his character just as it would be described in a book.” Watching while being watched. The best acting on view feels both passionate and dispassionate. Trinneer’s Edward locates an especially witty corner of the kings’ delusional qualities when, four years into a long war, he is asked if he has received any news lately. Tearing up the latest message, he quickly replies: “No. Have you?”

His hair bleached white, McDonald’s punk-inflected Gaveston would feel right at home in the 1992 Derek Jarman film version. His insolence carries some real force. Travis Michael Holder lends a serenely unctuous quality to the archbishop. Best of all is Hoffman’s watchful, cagey Mortimer.

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The play does grind on. Brecht’s fledgling (and, it turned out, temporary) notion of fake-historical tragedy lacks the crazy energy of other plays from this early period. Certain motifs in the Circle X production become wearisome, notably that hammering ONE-two-three/ONE-two-three/one-two/one-two/one-two/one-two percussion theme. But in the main, the staging feels full and lively, even when the text puts up a fight.

“My political knowledge in those days was disgracefully slight,” wrote Brecht years later, “but I was aware of huge inconsistencies in people’s social life.” On a stark, simple set--a raked platform covered in ground-up bits of rubber tire--Michetti’s ensemble makes some impressive stuff of age-old prejudices, inequities and misfortunes.

* “Edward II,” Circle X Theatre Company at the Actors’ Gang Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays through Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends March 11. $15. Sundays, pay-what-you-can. (323) 461-6069. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.

Sharon Bart: Young Edward

Spencer Beglarian: Abbot

James Caffery: Younger Gurney

Jillian Crane: Anne

Ahmed Enani: Baldock

Joshua Haber: Kent

Dominic Hoffman: Mortimer

Travis Michael Holder: Archbishop

Brian McDonald: Gaveston

Thomas Redding: Lancaster

Todd Sible: Spencer

Todd Tesen: Lightborn/James

Connor Trinneer: Edward

Bradley White: Elder Gurney

Written by Bertolt Brecht with Lion Feuchwanger, adapted from the play by Christopher Marlowe. English translation Eric Bentley. Directed and designed by Michael Michetti. Co-set design by John Altieri. Lighting by Robert Fromer. Co-costume design by Pamela Shaw. Original music by Paul Hepker. Drum score by Paul Hepker and Paul Rudolph. Fight choreographer Brian Reynolds. Production stage manager Scott Cheek.