Violence Blows Up This ‘Powder Keg’

“Powder Keg” by Macedonian playwright Dejan Dukovski, which recently had a brief run at Cal State L.A., extends its American premiere engagement at the Odyssey with its original staging and multinational cast, many of whom hail from the Balkan region in which the play is set.

Anyone expecting Dukovski’s 1994 play, written during the war in the former Yugoslavia, to shed any light on that conflict--or on the Balkan region--is in for a disappointment. Dukovski’s hyper-violent, expletive-ridden drama is unspecific and derivative, consisting of randomly linked scenes of generalized thuggery and depravity. The f-word is spouted so repetitively that the effect is unintentionally comic, as is the frequency with which characters smash bottles over one another’s heads. The result barely skirts parody, and is not so much profound as it is simply assaultive.

The otherwise random scenes are each linked by a common character from the previous scene--a kind of “La Ronde” with mayhem substituted for sex. The circular conceit is provocative, and to his credit, Dukovski (translated here by Philip Philipovich) incorporates a fair degree of humor into the mishmash.

So does director Neno Pervan, whose fervid, intermittently amusing staging gives a bunch of earnest actors--including himself--a chance to get down and gritty. And when they do, all method breaks loose, as the performers snarl, cower, shout and emote with the untrammeled conviction of their considerable craft.

But one is left with the distinct impression that this is one of those depressingly omnipresent plays in which the playwright conceals his or her inexperience under generic shock value. Depicting violence is easy. Depicting violence to a purpose and a point is hard.

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* “Powder Keg,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Fridays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 28. $20. (310) 477-2055. Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.