THEATER BEAT

South African playwright Athol Fugard has long been hailed as one of the world’s most important living playwrights. The West Coast premiere of “Coming Home” at the Fountain Theatre showcases his artistry in an optimum production.

Laura Fine Hawkes’ meticulous set, a one-room hut in a remote South African village, plants us firmly in another world, where subsistence is a triumph of will. It is here that Veronica Jonkers (heartbreakingly matter-of-fact Deidrie Henry), a road-weary refugee from a hard life in Cape Town, has returned with her little boy, Mannetjie (Timothy Taylor).

Veronica’s old friend, mildly challenged farmer Alfred Witbooi (poignantly bombastic Thomas Silcott), gives her a hero’s welcome, and flashbacks with Veronica’s deceased father (Adolphus Ward) inform us that Veronica was the best and brightest in the village until she left some years back to pursue a singing career in the big city. But it soon becomes apparent that this is no triumphal homecoming but rather the last stand of Veronica’s sad life.

Director Stephen Sachs has elicited pitch-perfect performances from his cast, including Matthew Elam, who plays Mannetjie at age 10. In the denouement, Fugard blunders a bit, idiot-proofing the play’s themes and indulging in some obvious author-in-dialogue. His masterly contrast of simple lives and elemental struggle, however, is resonantly humanistic, and in keeping with that tone Sachs keeps things emotionally straightforward and laceratingly truthful. When the battered Veronica sings for Alfred and the action flashes back to her youthful self at the zenith of hope and promise, the tragedy of one life is summed up and light is shed on the larger human condition.

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F. Kathleen Foley --

“Coming Home,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 29. $25-$28. (Dark July 4.) (323) 663-1525. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.

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A revival that’s more like a rave

The longevity of “Godspell” owes as much to its ecumenical take on the Gospel of St. Matthew as to its rampant tunefulness. Both aspects adorn the Knightsbridge Theatre staging of Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak’s indestructible 1971 rock musical.

Director Chuck McCollum takes songwriter Schwartz’s view of “Godspell” as the formation of a community to heart. This doesn’t explain the prologue in prison uniforms on designer John Paul De Leonardis’ holding pen, but that becomes irrelevant at the advent of John the Baptist (Rene Guerrero). He delivers “Prepare Ye,” the set opens up and the full-voiced cast joyously exits.

They return as Melrose Avenue denizens, wearing costumer Christina Wright’s thrift-store chic, once unaffected Jesus (Sterling Sulieman) arrives in his boxers. Thereafter, Tebelak’s improv-slanted parables and Schwartz’s evergreen songs take flight. Musical director Jan Roper winningly re-orchestrates the score, and choreographer Allison Bibicoff exhibits considerable wit.

Sulieman, aptly sunny, contrasts well with Guerrero, whose shift to Judas occurs imperceptibly. Jenny Weaver offers a galvanic “Day by Day,” Cloie Wyatt Taylor a righteous “Bless the Lord,” and Maria Lee incinerates the aisles with “Turn Back, O Man.” Talo Silveyra soars through “All Good Gifts,” while Zach Bindler turns “We Beseech Thee” into a revivalist rave-up. Kelly Boczek, Tracy Thomas and the incorrigible Jason B. Hightower complete an engaging roster.

Their precocity and McCollum’s stage maneuvers can feel over-studied, with the ending just missing full catharsis. Yet there’s no missing the rapt joie de vivre, which ensures that we learn “Godspell’s” lessons well.

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David C. Nichols --

“Godspell,” Knightsbridge Theatre, 1944 Riverside Drive, L.A. 8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. No show July 4. Ends July 12. $20. (323) 667-0955. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

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Twisted times at the Kit Kat Klub

Only the insensate would deny the scope of “Cabaret” at the Met Theatre, a surefire theatre-party event. This revival of Sam Mendes’ revision of the 1966 Kander and Ebb classic is certainly resolute.

Mendes deconstructs Joe Masteroff’s libretto so that Weimar-era Berlin unfolds inside the Kit Kat Klub, with bar service and stage-side tables. Scenic artist Victoria Bello splashes Klee-inspired tones, and pansexual Emcee (co-producer Eduardo Enrikez) and his raucous girls and boys launch a “Willkommen” that portends a head-spinner.

The concept, however, requires immersive verite, at which director Judy Norton and choreographer Tania Possick only half succeed. Nor can musical director Greg Haake’s competent combo equal the immediacy of Mendes’ cast-supplied accompaniment.

Kalinda Gray is valiant as Sally Bowles, suggesting Donmar Warehouse originator Jane Horrocks. Still, the musical load, including Liza Minnelli’s ’72 film numbers, taxes her. Mendes’ deletions render Michael Bernardi’s Christopher Isherwood surrogate overly functional, and Enrikez is tireless but not exactly enigmatic.

They and the whole ensemble work their bottoms off, but the mix of elan and chill is askew. The decadence becomes affect, the growing Nazi presence erratic, so that Danielle Soibelman’s piping “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” solo out-creeps the ensemble’s stark Act 1 closer. When Fraulein Schneider (Annalisa Erickson) gives “What Would You Do,” easily “Cabaret’s” most conventional number, more punch than Sally’s title song or the Emcee’s final shocker, we’re at an off-kilter Kit Kat.

Such imbalances won’t trouble audiences seeking a unique evening out. Theatrically, they denote a determined yet utilitarian Walpurgisnacht.

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D.C.N. --

“Cabaret,” Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 9. $34.99-$50. (323) 957-1152. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

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Held captive by prisoners’ agony

Craig Wright’s “The Unseen” at the Road Theatre is punctuated by ear-splitting clangs and metallic screeches -- courtesy of David B. Marling’s superb sound design -- that wear on one’s nerves within minutes.

For Valdez and Wallace (Matt Kirkwood and Darin Singleton, both excellent), those sounds have been a continuous torment for years on end. Imprisoned for unspecified reasons by some unnamed, possibly futuristic totalitarian regime, the two are routinely dragged out of their cells for questioning and torture. But there’s no appeasing their mysterious captors, who seem more intent on dehumanization than information.

There are no family portraits or personal artifacts to relieve Desma Murphy’s stark prison set, glaringly lighted by Jeremy Pivnick. Other than nerve-racking visits by their brutish guard (Douglas Dickerman, in a hilarious, harrowing turn), the only stimulus available to the brainy Wallace and deceptively slow-witted Valdez is conversation, their sole hedge against insanity.

But what a powerful hedge it is. Wright, who also directs, is a prolific playwright as well as a television producer and the creator of “Dirty Sexy Money.” A versatile craftsman, Wright has become known for his intimate exegeses of male/female relationships. “Unseen” may seem a radical departure, but Wallace and Valdez share a bond more intimate than any lovers’. Granted, Wright’s dystopian dialectic sometimes veers into the self-conscious. But the human imperative for connection, however forced or flawed, imparts this harrowing tale of paranoia, fear and mindless oppression with real meaning. We wallow in Valdez and Wallace’s pain but to a purpose.

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F.K.F --

“The Unseen,” Road Theatre, Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 22. $30. (866) 811-4111. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.