A Lush Backdrop for the Hedonism of ‘Baal’ : The elaborate environmental set for the Brecht play includes 40 tons of dirt, a stream and a bar where audience, players mingle

If you were inside Petra Von Kant’s boudoir at the Open Fist Theatre last month, you might not recognize it now.

“The set encompasses the entire playing area,” said actor Brian Muir, who’s doing the title role in a new staging of Bertolt Brecht’s “Baal,” which opened this weekend at the Hollywood theater. In addition to 40 tons of dirt (compliments of a local construction site), the environmental set includes a stream, a forest area, a cabin and a bar--where audiences and patrons will mingle with the players.

“They call me crazy because I like to go all the way,” said the show’s director, Open Fist artistic director Ziad Hamzeh. “I’d grown up with this story--the myth of Baal; I’d always wanted to do it.” The piece, which Brecht wrote in 1919, is set in 1911, chronicling the spiritual and physical ruin of the reckless, hedonistic poet Baal. “The realistic set is appropriate for a man who engulfs himself in nature and who devours everything around him,” Hamzeh said.

Muir is attracted to just that quality in the character he plays. “I love his lust for life,” he said. “He takes life and nature to the hilt, and falls in love with everything. We’re doing him as a tragic hero; I equate him with the Jim Morrison of Brecht’s time.”

The intensity of the role--which includes nudity, emotional histrionics, dancing and guitar playing--”is exhausting,” Muir admitted. “And the nudity requires conquering another whole fear.”

For Hamzeh, 33, the production has also been exhausting--he estimates that he spends 16 to 18 hours a day at the theater--but is a fortuitous example of savvy civic and business alliances. The 40 tons of dirt were contracted for a case of beer. The Los Angeles cultural affairs office provided a grant for all the materials; accordingly, what the director estimates as a $30,000 to $40,000 set has been assembled for less than $300.

He’s economizing regarding the actors, too. “I’ve double- and triple-cast many of the roles,” he said. “Twenty-three people are playing 50 parts.” Further alterations include a cabaret-style score by John Hoover (who also composed a score for Hamzeh’s 1988 Lincoln Center-bound production of Brecht’s “The Good Woman of Setzuan”) and a new character: a prologue that Hamzeh has refashioned as narration by a transvestite chanteuse.

Born in Damascus to a Syrian father and a French mother, Hamzeh attended a professional children’s school and began performing on television and in the theater at the age of 5. “I always had a tremendous passion for it,” he said. At 17, he won an acting award from the Damascus National Theatre for a scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory of Art; after his training, he returned to Syria and became involved in a “very political TV show” called “The Truth.”

“It was canceled after a month, and I was jailed a little while--for treason,” he said. “I was lucky; my father got me off. The producer was executed.” Subsequent stays in France, Saudi Arabia and South Africa provided valuable perspective, he said, “on different cultures and theatrical styles.” Arriving in the United States in 1979, he got a bachelor’s degree from the Boston University, a master’s degree in theater history and criticism from Cal State Los Angeles, and a master’s in directing from Cal State Fullerton.

It wasn’t always easy. Although he was buoyed with encouragement--the John F. Kennedy Award in theater arts in Boston, a year at New York’s prestigious Circle Rep, a scholarship to Fullerton--Hamzeh arrived speaking little English; in Boston, he worked as a dishwasher to support himself.

Theatrically, too, he was dissatisfied. “I always had a dream of a company where quality was the only standard--not egos and attitudes, just a respect for the work.”

In November, 1990, the Open Fist made its debut with a revival of Sam Shepard’s “True West.” Seven productions, six workshops--and many good reviews--later, he’s clearly pleased with his company’s development in the community. “The dream has come true: 60 people who are an ensemble, who care for one another.” The entourage includes his wife, Helena Cullen-Hamzeh, a dramaturge, and their son, 3-year-old Christopher.

“He spends his days here,” Hamzeh said proudly. “He spends all his time around 60 grown-ups; his vocabulary is better than mine. But it’s great to have him around. I’m seeing the play with his wonder, through a child’s eyes.”

“Baal” plays at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at the Open Fist Theatre, 1625 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood, through June 27. Admission: $15. Call (213) 882-6912.