Playwright: adapted by Alexander Gelman from the novel by Joseph Conrad. At: Organic Theater Company at La Costa Theatre, 3931 N. Elston. Phone: 800-595-4849; $29. Runs through: May 11
Dirty Spook Tricks didn't begin with the CIA, any more than espionage fiction with Graham Greene or John LeCarré. As long ago as 1907, Joseph Conrad—author of Lord Jim and Heart Of Darkness—explored Spy Games in his cautionary tale of the collateral damage engendered by a dubious charade conceived as a purely tactical gesture.
Our unlikely hero is one Mr. Verloc, ostensibly a happily-married London shopkeeper, but in reality, an informant for the local police AND an agent provocateur for the government of an unnamed European country. This unglamorous operative hasn't been very provoqué lately, however, and his boss at the embassy suggests that his career would improve if he staged a small disaster—say, a bombing at the Greenwich Observatory—an assignment presenting its engineer with an opportunity to have his brother-in-law arrested for the crime. But when an accident sets off the explosion prematurely, killing the innocent lad, a search is mounted for the accessory perps, with tragic results for Verloc and his distraught wife.
The goals of the current group of artists doing business under the name of the venerable Organic Theater Company appear considerably different from those of its rebellious mid-'70s founders. Under the leadership of producing artistic director Alexander Gelman, this production—running in repertory with five other plays, including four remounts from its 2007 season—emerges as noteworthy for its attention to academic values as for its disregard of commercial considerations: Gelman's adaptation displays a rare and commendable reverence for Conrad's text, transferred nearly-verbatim from the original—except for a few disruptive moments when M. Anthony Reimer's otherwise impeccable score of incidental music suddenly shifts to Jazz Age classics ( e.g., Al Jolson's rendition of 'Toot-Toot-Tootsie' ) as the actors break into jubilant dancing for no apparent reason beyond relief from the exclusively verbal discourse.
To their credit, the well-trained young players navigate their Story Theatre-style dialogue with unhurried skill—in particular, Richard L. Gross as Chief Inspector Heat and Joel Stanley Huff as the ambivalent Verloc—to bring the performance time to an efficient two and a half hours. The sad irony is that audiences most likely to appreciate these page-to-stage efforts will find their access encumbered by the steep staircase leading to the industrial loft space comprising the latest entry in the burgeoning Elston Avenue art district.