THEATER REVIEW : Ethical Issues Get Short Shrift : The cast of ‘Andersonville Trial,’ a post-Civil War drama, appears to be afraid of the play’s own power.

There’s no reason why Saul Levitt’s late-’50s courtroom drama “The Ander sonville Trial” shouldn’t remain vital. Unlike many trial plays, its post-Civil War setting is so far removed from any modern reality that it’s not dated. Like Brecht’s “Galileo,” the specific events and dilemmas are so old, they’re universally apt. And Levitt’s attempt to dramatize U. S. history remains a rare one by an American playwright.

But “The Andersonville Trial” isn’t vital in director Bill Prescott’s staging at the Woodland Hills Community Theatre (produced under a special Actors Equity contract). Levitt’s play is too skillful for it ever to become a boring history lesson, but the stakes aren’t set nearly high enough here for us to feel the full brunt of what should be a galvanizing morality play.

Think back, and you may remember George C. Scott’s exquisite KCET production in 1970, with William Shatner, Jack Cassidy, Richard Basehart and Cameron Mitchell. It was enough to turn this 14-year-old viewer into a theater fan for life. No “Andersonville,” of course, would ever top it and none should be compared to it. But Levitt’s work, again like Brecht’s, can cause one’s ethical sense to shift. Any “Andersonville” production should at least convey that.

In Prescott’s production, cast members can generally only hint at it--they’re a little scared of the play’s own power. In the war’s aftermath, with Northern vengeance against the defeated South at an apex, Henry Wirz, (Jon Berry) warden of the Confederate POW camp at Andersonville, Ga., seems to be the most dramatic and effective Southern war criminal that the U.S. government can bring to military justice. While Wirz is defended by the cynical, wily Otis Baker (Jim Miller), he is opposed by an ambitious idealist, Lt. Col. N.P. Chipman (Gordon J. Noice).

The very reason why Wirz is up for prosecution--the apparently cut-and-dried evidence that he conspired to make the prison camp “a hell” in which prisoners resorted to cannibalism--is undercut by Baker’s brilliant lawyering. Chipman, realizing that he may lose and thus scandalize the government, sees only one attack left: Try Wirz on the moral grounds that he should have disobeyed orders so as to save his prisoners.

“Andersonville” is the American response to the Nuremberg trials, where mere obedience to orders was outlawed in military trials. In 1865, however, Chipman’s course was radical indeed.

It should also be thrilling, the final profound closure of a profound war. While Noice is earnest, his woodenness and his unfortunate habit of upstaging himself during some of the most crucial scenes stalls the emotional drive in this courtroom. Miller plays the snakelike dandy to the hilt, though his accent wobbles. John Henry Whitaker as Judge Gen. Lew Wallace is very good at poses, but never feels in total control of the court.

Berry, the cast’s Equity member and the company’s artistic director, turns Wirz into an ailing giant of a man, slowly suggesting the coward behind the facade of victimhood. It’s an interesting performance until he rushes through Wirz’s final, obsessive monologues, in which the full pain of Andersonville becomes shockingly revealed.

The previous witnesses are Levitt’s way of injecting a little humor--always the play’s weak link, but good chances for character actors. Here, most of them take advantage of the chances, especially Michael Groves and Darryl Swearingen. While Don Nelson’s costumes are unusually rich and authentic for community theater, the supporting cast members of silent court attendees look like they’re playing dress-up.

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “The Andersonville Trial.”

Location: Woodland Hills Community Theatre, 22700 Sherman Way, West Hills.

Hours: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. June 12.

Price: $13 to $15.

Call: (818) 884-1907.