THEATER REVIEWS : ‘Bad Seed’ Tells Its Secrets Early : A generally capable cast plays out the horrors of an 8-year-old murderer in this bang-up story. Problem is, most of the characters know too much too soon.

When Maxwell Anderson’s “The Bad Seed” was first staged in 1954, its tale of a cold-blooded 8-year-old murderer was considered a horror story. Today it would take its place beside too many similar stories to give it much shock value.

But even then, Anderson’s parable about the bad seed of complacent slaughter reappearing in the second generation down the line was scientifically behind the times. That doesn’t matter. It’s still a bang-up story, and its O. Henry twist at the end can still elicit a grim, ironic smile.

The production at Cabrillo Playhouse is true to its time, and director Sandy Silver for the most part keeps it moving at the right speed. What she hasn’t done is re-create the eerie suspense that Anderson carefully builds. Most of the problem, in a script that telegraphs its secrets enough on its own, is that Silver allows her actors to be too intent early on about things that they don’t yet realize.

An example is the pint-sized killer’s mother’s early worried and distraught glances at her picture-perfect daughter almost from the beginning, when no indication of little Rhoda’s evil has yet come to light.

Anderson’s own giveaways, upstairs neighbor Monica’s harping on Jungian theory, visits by a crime writer who knows much about homicide, etc., have to be clouded by such natural staging as to cloak their purpose. This production points them out blatantly.

Otherwise, Silver has gathered a generally capable cast to play out the horrors of Rhoda’s shenanigans. Barbara Kerek Anzlovar is solid as the mother, outside of a tendency to fall apart too soon and too openly, and a feeling sometimes that she is less concerned about what Rhoda has done than about her own guilt.

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Margaret Taylor gets the laughs that are due her as the neighbor-landlady Monica and is also very effective when she doesn’t interpret her admitted flightiness by rattling off her lines. Much more stable in intent is the performance of Ronald Sinclair as the fumbling handyman who recognizes what Rhoda is and plays a game of cat-and-mouse with her.

The performance of the evening is the important one, that of the dimpled darling herself, the ideal little girl with a dazzling smile and a heart as chilly as it is cunning. Young Jessica Holley underplays her lines with great aplomb and has learned that subtext, the contrasting emotions behind the spoken words, is an actor’s most valuable tool. It’s a lesson the adult cast members should watch.

Holley is also brimming over with the charm, grace and humor Anderson describes. Mary O’Brien is fine as the starchy teacher who suspects Rhoda’s evil, and Danette Haddad effective as the besotted mother of Rhoda’s latest victim.

Frank Vibrans, Bill Reed, Ron Lance and John Petersen hit their marks properly in a production that looks good on Diane Green’s charming suburban apartment setting but that should be darker in tone and more guarded with its secrets.

* “The Bad Seed,” Cabrillo Playhouse, 202 Avenida Cabrillo, San Clemente. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Matinee Jan. 23, 2 p.m. Ends Jan. 29. $10. (714) 492-0465. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes. Jessica Holley: Rhoda Penmark

Barbara Kerek Anzlovar: Christine Penmark

Margaret Taylor: Monica

Ronald Sinclair; Leroy

Mary O’Brien: Miss Fern

Danette Haddad: Mrs. Daigle

A Cabrillo Playhouse production of the Maxwell Anderson drama. Directed by Sandy Silver. Scenic design: Diane Green. Musical director/sound design: K. Robert Eaton. Sound/lighting design: Ed Howie. Assistant director/stage manager: Terri Gilbert.