THEATER REVIEW : OF KINGS, SAINTS AND THEIR CHOICES

Politicians are not usually the stuff of which saints are made. But Sir Thomas More, who rose to the office of chancellor of England under King Henry VIII, was no ordinary statesman.

For one thing, he had a rather cruel and peculiar disability: He did not lie. When faced with choosing between his death and signing an oath rejecting the policies of the church in which he believed, More chose death. His church rewarded him with sainthood 400 years later.

Robert Bolt’s successful 1960 play about More, “A Man for All Seasons,” inaugurated the first season of the Lamb’s Players Theatre at their resident stage, and is now opening its 10th, and playing through March 21.

It is easy to see the appeal of this highly moral story to the Lamb’s Players, a self-professed Christian theater troupe. But that should not suggest that this spirited and largely well-acted production is the least bit preachy. Michael Harvey, in the title role, sets the tone by showing More not as a man in search of martyrdom, but as a man with a joie de vivre who would sacrifice everything but his honesty to keep on living.

The action takes place in the last five years of More’s life, when More and the king were at odds over Henry’s divorce.

Henry left his first wife because she had not given him a male heir. He tried to get a divorce through the Catholic Church, but it would not sanction one. Henry then established a new church, making himself the head, got his divorce, and married Anne Boleyn.

To object to any of the king’s actions was high treason. And More was careful not to object. But he was also careful not to affirm.

In fact, the play is constructed much like a cat-and-mouse game. Will the king or the king’s men trap More into making a statement? Will the church or a church emissary coerce him into taking a position? Are there any bribes--emotional or monetary--that can appeal to him? Are there any indiscretions to be held over his head?

One of the intriguing things about this play is how hard it is for family, friend and foe to understand what makes More tick and yet how simple and unheroic his character is to himself. In his own eyes, he does no more nor less than he feels that he must do.

The play is largely Harvey’s as More, and he runs with it, giving us as human and endearing a saint as the lines will allow.

Gail West provides fine support as More’s sweetly sour, long-suffering wife, Alice. David Cochran Heath plays More’s nemesis, Thomas Cromwell, with well-oiled villainous vigor, although he does sometimes fall into the temptation of caricature.

Martin Katz does a nice turn as Richard Rich, a nervous, ill-at-ease young man who would have liked to have been good, if only it paid better. In the role of Common Man, Walter Murray wears the hats of narrator and various working men with an ingenuous pragmatism that is often likable, if not always admirable.

The smaller roles are not as successful, with the exception of John Ara Martin as the wonderfully wicked Cardinal Wolsey, and Robert Smyth (the theater’s artistic director), who is all charm and thunder as Henry VIII. In contrast, Ron Kubicek and Brett Weir lack energy and focus in their roles as Duke of Norfolk and Signor Chapuys, respectively, and Lauren Hamilton and Rick Meads as More’s daughter and son-in-law are too predictable to be interesting.

Deborah Gilmour Smyth’s direction keeps things moving nicely--with the exception of the closing scene, which seems to drift rather than end. Mike Buckley’s scenic design is definitely minimalist: It does the job, but not much more. Margaret Neuhoff Vida’s costumes are a bit of a disappointment. It would have been nice if there had been more of a contrast between More’s family’s clothes before and after his imprisonment. Dave Thayer’s lighting and sound are satisfactory.

Of course, if the production is excessively ascetic, it does fit in with the story of this man who, instead of dreading the privations of prison life, welcomed his retreat from the material world.

More was, as his friend, Erasmus, described him, omnium horarum homo --a man for all seasons. He’s certainly welcome in this theatrical one.

“A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS” By Robert Bolt. Director is Deborah Gilmour Smyth. Costumes by Margaret Neuhoff Vida. Sets by Mike Buckley. Lighting and sound by Dave Thayer. With Lauren Hamilton, Michael Harvey, David Cochran Heath, Martin Katz, Ron Kubicek, John Ara Martin, Rick Meads, Walter Murray, Christopher Redo, Robert Smyth, Brett Weir and Gail West. At 8 p.m. Tuesday--Saturday with Saturday matinees at 2. Closes March 21. At Lamb’s Players Theatre, 500 Plaza Blvd., National City.