‘In Dark Times’

Andy Griggs and Doug Langworthy combined excerpts from Bertolt Brecht’s testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947 with a selection of his poetry and songs and emerged with “Bertolt Brecht: In Dark Times” at the Burbage.

As director, Griggs sends his Brecht (Jason Logan) and a cast of five singers and readers to every corner of the stage and up into Ric Menegat’s scaffolding--while the congressional inquisitors (Jay Michael Fraley and Christopher Flynn) address the great man from the back of the hall.

The style is, well, Brechtian. The poems, blunt and bitter, make their points as planned, and the testimony is grimly funny as well as sad. The sum of it all, however, is less than the individual parts.

Perhaps we miss the characters who humanized Brecht’s greatest work, or the narrative lines that grip the audiences for his plays, or the allegorical settings. Whatever the reason, the show soon runs out of surprises. While we can tsk-tsk along with Brecht, too many of the specific objects of his scorn are safely set in the past.

At 2330 Sawtelle Blvd., West Los Angeles, Thursdays through Sundays at 8 p.m., through March 19. Tickets: $15; (213) 478-0897.