Theater Reveiw : Strength of Charles Lanyer’s Goering Stands Alone in ‘2’

The 50th anniversary of the end of World War II makes this a fitting year for Romulus Linney’s “2,” which examines No. 2 Nazi Hermann Goering’s final days as a prisoner and Nuremberg defendant in 1945-46. And actor Charles Lanyer cuts a striking figure as Goering at International City Theatre in Long Beach.

But the play, at least as presented in Jessica Kubzansky’s staging, hardly merits the accolades it has received, which include a national critics’ award. The character of Goering is fascinating, but the other people in the play are stick figures.

They don’t have names--identified instead only by such labels as “Commandant,” “Counsel,” “Psychiatrist,” “Wife.” Goering’s inquisitors before the Nuremberg tribunal aren’t even embodied on stage--we hear only their voices. This scanting of every character except Goering must have been intentional--the better to focus on the many complexities within the master war criminal himself. But it doesn’t make for gripping drama.

There would have been more drama if Goering were allowed a few moments of self-doubt. But Linney’s--and Lanyer’s--Goering never appears to be substantially shaken by the charges against him. He appears to believe his own denials of complicity in the Nazi atrocities. At the same time, he’s careful not to betray his Fuhrer either, instead shifting the blame for all the blunders and horrors to other Nazi leaders--and to human nature itself.

Goering is a crafty and charismatic man, with a wicked sense of humor, which Lanyer conveys with pitch-perfect bravado. Linney apparently intended to stoke a bit of admiration for Goering’s personality, so as to show us how No. 2 might readily have sucked others--like ourselves--into going along with his evil deeds.

But surely this could have been accomplished without sacrificing so much of the strength and the subtlety of the other characters. Linney’s ham-fisted approach reaches its nadir when Psychiatrist (Nick Salamone) delivers a stilted speech calling on the world to “come together and give up its racial stereotypes,” followed within seconds by a white Southern G.I. (Eamon Hunt) addressing an African American colleague (David Roberson) as “boy”--which, of course, enables Goering to underline the irony of it all.

Apart from Lanyer, only Jack Betts--in the minor role of the Commandant--makes an impression. Jack Kissell as Goering’s counsel, who ostensibly goes through an evolution of his attitude toward the defendant, hardly registers. And sound designer Gregory Lhotka’s gongs and drums quickly become hackneyed.

* “2,” International City Theatre, campus of Long Beach City College, Clark and Harvey Way. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends June 18. $18. (310) 420-4128. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.