Martell’s play isn’t as fearless as its explorers

With the Lewis & Clark bicentennial scant months away, it is timely of the Colony Theatre to present Leon Martell’s “Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme” as the third offering of its inaugural Equity season. This new play about the Corps of Discovery’s 1804-05 Northwest Passage possesses considerable integrity in both execution and intent.

Refracted through the tortured mind of Meriwether Lewis (the excellent Donald Sage Mackay) in his final days, the tale spins back and forth across time, taking an ephemeral approach to literal occurrences.

The prologue finds Lewis waxing poetic on the apron of Stephanie Kerley Schwartz’s wood-slatted setting, the ensemble staring in silent witness above him. With sudden shifts in David Flad’s lighting and Michael Hooker’s sound, the center platform becomes a ship, with Lewis evincing latter-day desperation. This begins a kaleidoscopic journey that moves from triumph to tragedy in an inexorable spiral.

Director David Rose deploys choral and ritual techniques to rewarding effect. Particularly striking are the realizations of the water routes and the perilous Continental Divide.

The design factions are invaluable, including Richard A. Hardin’s well-chosen properties and A. Jeffrey Schoenberg’s splendid costumes. They clothe a finely tuned ensemble in multiple roles, repeatedly harvesting humor and emotional point.

Mackay’s ravaged youthful quality is perfect for Lewis. As William Clark, Tony Maggio lacks the famous red hair, but he is as ever an actor of rare presence and articulation.

DeLanna Studi’s remarkable Sacagawea has an acute inner response that reaches a heart-rending peak in the Act 2 recollection of her childhood abduction. Patrick Huey’s intense dignity as Clark’s slave York pulls the proceedings into another level of significance altogether.

Other standouts are Tom Dugan’s Gen. Clark, Kenneth Martines’ Black Buffalo, Kevin Symons’ Mrs. Lewis, Andrew David James’ Shannon, Blaise Messinger’s Charbonneau and Jonathan Palmer’s Drouillard.

Ironically, the group commitment and design aplomb rather outstrip Martell’s script. The epistolary selections shrewdly mold the narrative fabric, but it still may take uninformed audiences half of Act 1 to sort out what is happening.

More critically, Martell betrays a hesitancy to ascribe imagined motivations or subtextual underpinnings. His impressionistic collage lacks a decided authorial voice.

Ultimately, “Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme” recalls John Belluso’s “The Body of Bourne,” at the Mark Taper in 2001, in which ensemble excellence and technical wonder elevated an admirable but less than incisive text.

This does not negate Martell’s accomplishment. But if his vision is to successfully traverse turbulent commercial waters, he needs more fearless excavation of the human mystery beneath the artfully interwoven history.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

“Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme”

Where: Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank.

When: Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays 2 and 8 p.m.

Ends: Ends Nov. 17.

Price: $25-$28.

Contact: (818) 558-7000.

Running time: 2 hours,

25 minutes.