THEATER REVIEWS : Shades of a Fading Society in ‘Barbarians’

Besides its rich ensemble acting, Pacific Theatre Ensemble is known for imbuing its productions with an extraordinary sense of the mood, colorings and aura of the period and locale. For the group’s production of Maxim Gorky’s “Barbarians,” the effect begins with authentic lemon piroshki at the door.

Inside, we enter a small provincial Russian town just after the turn of the century, by virtue of Bruce Whitney’s sound design and Matthew C. Jacobs’ environmental set, which spills over into the aisles. As the lights come up, director Stephanie Shroyer’s actors fully inhabit this world.

The “barbarians,” as the mayor (Tom Poindexter) calls them, are two engineers arriving to build a railroad that will connect the village with, if not the world, at least the rest of Russia. This may be as disastrous as the mayor believes. It may not only deprive him of his power, but will most certainly contribute to the destruction of a Russian society based on privilege.

One of the engineers, Yegor Petrovich Cherkoon (Scott Allan Campbell), was a peasant himself. Crusty and determined in Campbell’s performance, he’s eager to become a leader in the middle class for which he strives to make room. As the other engineer, Sergi Nikolayich Tsyganov, Matt McKenzie has the cynical humor of a man who knows where society has come from and the baseness that it must go through before it improves. McKenzie’s flights of light comedy and the detailed solidity of his characterization are the shadow and substance of an opportunist biding his time.

Romance, of course, abounds, with partners parting and re-pairing, wives flirting outrageously, husbands seducing grandly. Lisa Pettett, as a wife who has no more use for her loveless marriage and vamps the engineers shamelessly, stands out.

Fiery student Stepan (Robert Standley) and the mayor’s equally volatile daughter (Lisa Steele) symbolize the pure hopes of a Russian future that even now has yet to turn out well.

There is an abused wife (Susan Dexter) whose sense of humor cannot protect her, the aging matriarch (Nancy Linehan Charles) who sees society crumbling but is too intent on her game of solitaire to care.

Gorky’s mass of characters is exactly this company’s meat. Each is a well-drawn detail in the playwright’s broad canvas, organized with a fine sense of shape and tone by Shroyer. But the picture is more than its amatory intrigues, its moments of human comedy. It is a reminder that all societies fade in time when they don’t hear the battle cry of the oppressed.

“Barbarians,” Pacific Theatre Ensemble, 8780 Venice Blvd. Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends May 23. $15; (213 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.