STAGE REVIEWS : ‘Breaker Morant,’ ‘Lucy’s Play’ in Rep at Cal State Long Beach : Drama: The story of a trumped-up British court-martial is given its U.S. stage premiere.

“Breaker Morant” is well known as the 1979 Australian film, but the true story of a trumped-up British court martial during the Boer War is unfamiliar here as a play.

A new repertory company, CalRep, is presenting the American stage premiere, and the production is a crackling military drama with first-rate period detail.

Playwright Kenneth Ross’ drama, the basis for the 1980 Oscar-nominated screenplay, echoes the theme of Stanley Kubrick’s great anti-war film, “Paths of Glory,” and jars memories of the aftermath of the My Lai massacre.

Director Ashley Carr and a 10-member cast invest the show with a metallic sheen and a crisp rhythm that signal promise for CalRep, which is the resident, professional arm of the Department of Theatre Arts at Cal State Long Beach. The theater is comfortable and intimate with tiered seating but, a propos of sprawling campuses, the site is a devil to find, even with a campus map.

What is striking about the production is its vocal distinction. Rarely do you hear actors with such strong diction. We are with Aussies and Brits (in 1902 South Africa), and the texture of the accents and the pristine delivery rivet and propel the action.

The Boer War is grinding to a close. Three bush-ravaged Aussie soldiers are hauled up for murdering Boer prisoners of war--a practice, we learn, that was directly encouraged by Britain’s own pompous, hypocritical Lord Kitchener (G. L. Shoup in a cartoony interpretation that misses the skulduggery of the character).

There’s no question that the gritty defendants (led by Robert M. Hefley’s fiery Lt. Harry (Breaker) Morant) parroted commands and shot Boer prisoners upon their capture. But the court-martial is a scapegoat job, a political showcase for the British, who suddenly want to look fair minded and noble in order to get the Boers to sit down at the peace table. After all, Empire building is at issue here.

The production’s tuning fork is Steve Brady as the defendants’ initially inexperienced counsel, Maj. Thomas, a man who has drama thrust upon him and takes on Kitchener’s lackeys with a growing anger that glows with heat.

Two actors, Russell Schmid and Russell St. Clair, are chameleons, playing multiple characters with flavorful touches. Ronald Allan-Lindblom’s big lug of a defendant, Ron Statler’s strong-willed president of the court (his bald head gleaming like a lamp), and John Ross Clark’s dutiful prosecutor are uniformly strong.

Underscoring the spit and brass are the coppery tones created by lighting designer Bernard J. Skalka, the safari-like beiges, boots and leathers of costume designer Judith Tucker-Snider, and the woody, burnished decor of the tribunal setting by set designer Herbert L. Camburn.

At 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach, Thursday and Friday, also Nov. 11, 16-17, Dec. 7, 8, 16, Jan. 26 - 27, Feb. 10, 16 - 17 at 8 p.m.; a matinee, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $8-$12. (213) 985-5526.