EverymanSocrates, on trial for his life

In ancient Athens 2,409 years ago, Socrates stood trial for, essentially, being a philospher, and for teaching the youth under his wing to ask questions.

I doubt that he had a bunch of jurors as annoyingly responsive as the ones on the soundtrack that plays throughout Plato's Apology: The Trial of Socrates, a Quintessence Theatre production at Mount Airy's Sedgwick Theater. But he would have been lucky to have the stage persona of the production's Socrates, Sam Tsoutsouvas.

Tsoutsouvas, who has worked on Broadway and at many major venues, is an everyman Socrates - a little bit arrogant, a touch elitist, but otherwise a basic kind of guy without a real job. As he walks around the raised stage, the audience seated below on all four sides, Tsoutsouvas quickly builds a character who fights for his life but is believably at peace with the world he constantly questions.

The production by Quintessence, a new professional company devoted to the classics and in its first full season, is staged by its artistic director, Alexander Burns. He keeps it fluid and aptly simple for its hour's duration, on a bare black stage with no visual effects, even in the lighting.

The sound effects are another story. An audio track of 14 male voices reacts to Socrates with approval or disdain or disbelief or, in one part, something that sounds suspiciously like gurgling or worse. It's more a theatrical version of a TV sitcom laugh track than a realistic response, mostly because the track is overused to the point of distraction. I began to wonder what the script would sound like with an I Love Lucy audience track instead, or something even more invasive - say, The Price Is Right.

Too bad, because it took me away from Tsoutsouvas' well-styled declamations, and his short dialogue with his major accuser, the questionably motivated Meletus, played by Sean Bradley. Bradley is dressed by costumer Jane Casanave as a Brooks Brothers Athenian, in contrast to the shoeless Tsoutsouvas, who wears more raggy street clothes - a nice touch.

Plato was Socrates' foremost student, and the Apology, his record of his mentor's trial, is written in three parts: defense, sentencing hearing, and condemnation, with Socrates as the sole speaker except for Meletus' cameo role. It is said to be written conversationally, and its translations mostly reflect that.

The adaptation Quintessence is using is new and both sensitive to Plato and sensible, period - and strangely uncredited in the program book. It is by Tsoutsouvas with editing by Burns, and why they don't tout themselves is beyond me. They do, however, credit all 14 guys in the laugh track.

Presented by Quintessence Theatre Group at the Sedgwick Theater,

7137 Germantown Ave., through

Dec. 5. Tickets: $30.

Information: 1-877-238-5596 or www.quintessencetheatre.org.EndText