‘Ezra Pound’ Missing Societal Pressure

It is a wee bit of an exaggeration to write that Ezra Pound was “perhaps one of the most notorious figures of the 20th century--held to stand trial as a traitor for allegedly pro-Fascist radio broadcasts” made in Italy during World War II. The trials at Nuremberg, the media circus in Tokyo and prejudicial hysteria certainly produced names even more well-known today. Ezra Pound? What about Tokyo Rose?

This puffed-up feeling of importance is partially what plagues Timothy Findley’s “The Trials of Ezra Pound,” at the California Repertory Company at Cal State Long Beach. Director David Wheeler compounds the problem of this intellectual play by the pure cerebral coldness that he maintains.

None of the characters is sympathetic and as Pound, Ashley Carr Jr. is a boorish womanizer, more repellent than compelling.

In real life, Pound never actually stood trial. He was instead declared mentally unfit and committed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. Findley orchestrates this piece as Pound’s obsessive nightmare, a confused memory and interpretation made in the troubled poet’s mind while he was confined in that hospital. Yet despite the finely tuned chaos, well-timed and organized by Wheeler, the feeling of that era’s hyper-patriotism and postwar hysteria are missing. Without this sense of overwhelming societal pressure and oppression, Pound’s plight and mental collapse are diminished into a personal demon, void of greater implications.

* “The Trials of Ezra Pound,” California Repertory Company at Cal State Long Beach’s University Theatre, 7th Street and West Campus Drive, Long Beach. Wednesdays, 6 p.m.; Thursdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; April 19, 8 p.m. only. Ends April 19. $15. (310) 985-7000. Running time: 2 hours.