The Andersonville Trial

Reviewed by Paul Birchall
Grove Theatre Center
Through April 10

RECOMMENDED

When the assignment comes down the pike that you are going to be sent to review a production of Saul Levitt’s courtroom drama, The Andersonville Trial, it is hard not to give into the temptation to heave a large sigh. After all, this is the quintessential, super old-fashioned, pre-Aaron Sorkin trial drama, full of moral debate and late middle-aged fellows harrumphing and galumphing, waving their arms about, and spluttering things like, “Objection!  This is hearsay, not evidence!” — and finishing up with a clunky Perry Mason-like interrogation of the defendant where he basically admits his culpability. 

It is difficult for any production of this play to efface the memory of the towering 1970s TV production featuring William Shatner as the prosecutor and Richard Basehart as the defendant. I mean, how could you forget the image of Captain Kirk from “Star Trek” locking horns with Admiral Nelson from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea?  You are left to wonder just why this show needs to be done again, and at a tiny theater tucked into a parks and rec building in a Burbank park?

In fact, director Gary Lee Reed’s production of this old warhorse is unexpectedly compelling, with good, forceful performances that intelligently underlie the drama’s philosophical arguments. There are also some unexpected moments.  For instance, members of the cast are seeded throughout the audience, as if we’re all in the courtroom. Just before the show, I turned to the mutton-chopped old Southern gentleman (who turned out to inhabit the role of a central witness) sitting next to me, and asked him if he had turned off his cell phone.  Without losing a beat, the performer replied (in perfect Southern drawl), “What is..this… cell… phone?” 

Reed’s production is not so much an attempt to find a new dimension to the play as it is to present its arguments with complete objectivity, turning the audience members into the trial jury.

After the end of the Civil War, Captain Wirz (Ian Patrick Williams), the commanding officer of Andersonville, the South’s most notorious prisoner-of-war camp, is put on trial for atrocities that occurred under his charge. During the height of the war, 40,000 soldiers were imprisoned there, with little food, no shelter, and inadequate water and medical care. Over 14,000 died. 

Wirz is being prosecuted by firebrand lawyer Chipman (Mark Belnick), a former Yankee soldier who seeks to make Wirz represent the accumulated evil of the entire Southern cause. The lawyer for the defense, rumpled libertarian Baker (Joe Colligan), seeks to show that Wirz was not responsible for the horrific conditions at the prison camp. Numerous witnesses are called, but the thrust of Chipman’s argument turns on the notion that Wirz had a responsibility to disobey the direct orders from his superiors that mandated the terrible treatment of the prisoners. 

Written as it was right after World War II, Levit’s drama is, metaphorically, as much about Nazi war guilt as it is about Civil War atrocities, where the idea of simply “following orders” became the excuse of evildoers to dismiss their actions. As director, however, Reed’s presentation is remarkably even handed: As portrayed by Williams, a grieving Wirz comes across as genuinely regretting his cowardice in obeying his superiors’ sadistic orders. Belnick portrays Chipman as an idealistic firebrand, desperate to fight the entire war in his courtroom. 

Belnick (who likely is more famous for his real work as a high level government lawyer during the Iran-Contra hearings than as an actor) flawlessly conveys the craftiness and idealism of a legal scholar, though he is a little less successful at embracing the emotions of outrage lurking beneath the courtroom motions and interrogations. Colligan’s crafty but nonetheless idealistic Baker is a more likable figure. 

Finally, the show’s crisp pacing allows for this generally rather humorless play to feel lighter and less ponderous. It’s commendable how Reed manages to lift what most commonly plays out as tired, fusty drama into the realm of artful moral debate. 

Grove Theater Center, 1111-B West Olive Ave, Burbank; Fri.- Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 3 p.m.; through April 10.  (323) 960-7738 or www.plays411.com/andersonville. Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes with a 15 minute intermission.