Didactic and Shepard: A Match Made in 'Hell'

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and if you're caught napping -- well, you might find yourself face to face with Welch.

Welch is the oily, jingoistic bureaucrat who pops up like a manic jack-in-the-box in Sam Shepard's political cautionary tale, "The God of Hell," being staged by the Didactic Theatre Company. When Welch barges in on two unsuspecting married Wisconsin farmers, he is toting a briefcase full of patriotic paraphernalia, including festive red-white-and-blue cookies. But his principal bequest turns out to be a lot less wholesome: a reality of brainwashing, xenophobia, flag-waving, federal snooping and torture.

Shepard didn't expend any extra subtlety on "The God of Hell," first produced in 2004. The program for Didactic's production, now at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, quotes the playwright as stating that the dark comedy is a "takeoff on Republican fascism." So it's appropriate enough that director H. Lee Gable, too, adopts a blunt approach with the production, which is wholehearted but occasionally a little slow.

The broad lampooning kicks off with the more-redneck-than-thou country music that twangs through the theater before the play begins. And it really clicks into gear when Welch (Matt Howe) oozes into the home of the dairy-farmer couple: Frank (Colby Codding) and Emma (Adrienne Nelson), who happen to be harboring a scientist (Christopher Carroll) who's on the run from a secret government experiment.

With a gleam in his eye and a hysteric tinge to his voice, Howe gives Welch an agitated, campy energy, as though he'd just downed a dozen cans of Red Bull. As he glides around the set, his posture ramrod straight, he lets his hands flitter through effete, exaggerated gestures -- miming quotation marks, or illustrating metaphoric turns of phrase.

This is a government henchman who is not only reactionary and immoral, but also clearly insane.

Providing a potent contrast to his frenzy is Nelson's placid Emma, who putters about in a cozy red bathrobe and matching hairband, speaking with a crooning Wisconsin accent -- an appealing, if somewhat dimwitted, representative of the American-heartland values under assault by Welch.

Codding gives a little more edge and wariness to his portrait of Frank, whose chief joy in life is spending time with his heifers. Only Carroll is really disappointing, as the cowed scientist Haynes, whose hush-hush research with plutonium has turned him into a walking spark plug. The actor has assembled a passel of tics meant to hint at the trauma Haynes has undergone, but he doesn't convincingly integrate them, and his stage presence is rather limp.

Partly as a result, some scenes feel a tad sluggish, and the pace could stand some quickening. Otherwise, the production effectively channels Shepard's sledgehammer-heavy ironies.

Costume designer Genevieve Williams chips in with expressive costumes, such as the kitschy red-white-and-blue tie and flag pin that jazz up Welch's sober gray suit. And set designer A.J. Guban has crafted an apt piece of banal Americana with his seedy kitchen-and-living-room set, complete with a dirty sofa, a run-down stove and sink, and a coffeemaker whose orange "ON" light shines steadily as civilization breaks down around it.

Recent events, of course, have arguably lent further oomph to the paranoid political vision in "The God of Hell." With White House-sanctioned wiretapping making headlines and the abuses at Abu Ghraib fresh in the memory, it could be a good time to ponder Welch's pointed challenge to American idealism: "What have you done to deserve such rampant freedom?"

The God of Hell, by Sam Shepard. Directed by H. Lee Gable; lighting, Jason Cowperthwaite; sound, Brendon Vierra. About 90 minutes. Through March 18. At the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. Call 202-249-0782 or visit http://www.didactictheatre.com .