Payoff Not Big Enough in ‘Game’

COSTA MESA — “The Deadly Game,” at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, is a talky courtroom drama with a twist: It doesn’t take place in a courtroom at all, but in the private home of retired judge Emile Carpeau.

Isolated in the Swiss Alps, trimmed with red plush drapes and great, ornately carved wooden chairs, Judge Carpeau’s dark-paneled drawing room seems at first to be merely the reclusive rendezvous spot for four old civil servants, retired friends who dine together regularly, feasting on memories as well as veal. The set design and decoration by David Hudnall and Diana Taylor ably suggest a retreat of the privileged class.

But when a stranger, stranded by the raging snowstorm, joins the foursome, his gracious hosts insist upon an unusual entertainment.

Under the direction of Pati Tambellini, the Playhouse production sails through the expository first act. The elements of a thriller all are in place, from the howling wind to the secretive, sidelong glances.

Unfortunately, Tambellini’s smooth hand and articulate players are not enough to take the second act beyond the obvious entrapment of the victim. Although each of the four white-haired, ruddy-faced gentlemen has a hint of something hidden behind his walrus mustache and/or wire-rim spectacles, the hints do not blossom into behavior. The psychological aspect of the thriller never develops.

Besides the judge, played by a beacon-eyed Glen L. Smith, the foursome includes a prosecutor (Bob Kokol), a defense attorney (Hal Morse), and a mysterious, decrepit old man. As played by Timothy T. Bercovitz, old Joseph, whose former occupation is revealed in the first-act tag line, hardly can contain his childlike impatience for the game to begin.

The defendant, Howard Trapp, played with noncommittal cockiness by Richard Erickson, is an average avaricious sinner who drinks too much and cheats on his wife. He’s not a man much worth rooting for, even though he is the victim of professional zeal gone haywire.

It seems these four gentlemen have been whiling away their golden years by retrying famous cases, just for fun, each playing the part he played in his professional life. But, should a fifth, willing participant materialize, why not try that person instead, for whatever crime he may choose--some little crime of living, to which he will confess for the sake of the game? Once the game is underway, it doesn’t take long for the audience to realize that the players are in deadly earnest.

The sinister dementia of this extravagant fantasy, in which “the ends of justice will be served” by a quartet of renegade septuagenarians who carry out their own verdicts, just doesn’t percolate up through the second-act trial, which is played straightforwardly and intelligently, but utterly without madness.

‘The Deadly Game’

A Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse production of the play by James Yaffee, directed by Pati Tambellini, produced by Denise Kenney and Diana Lyerla. Scenic design by David Hudnall. Set decoration by Diana Taylor. Lighting design by Leslie Barry. Costumes by Margaret Diehl, Kay Dittmer and Madye Smiley. With Glen L. Smith, Hal Morse, Timothy T. Bercovitz, Gina Altizer, Richard Erickson, Bob Kokol, Gary Halbert and Lorraine Pasqualini. Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. through March 15 at 661 Hamilton St., Costa Mesa. Tickets: $8.50 to $9.50. Information: (714) 650-5269.