STAGE REVIEW : Students Give Professional Touch to Angry ‘Indians’ : * The Fullerton College production, one of the best campus efforts around, is unfortunately matched with author’s hyperbolic play.

FULLERTON —  It’s obvious how much effort has been put into Fullerton College’s “Indians,” Arthur Kopit’s angry vision of native exploitation that came with westward expansion.

Director Bob Jensen’s huge cast is well-rehearsed and committed to Kopit’s cause. The staging is professionally done, with excellently crafted sets, authentic costumes and creative visuals. This is one of the best-looking campus productions to come around in a while.

What’s unfortunate is the often hyperbolic nature of Kopit’s play, a combination of historical fact and whimsical fantasy, all in the name of outrage.

In “Indians,” Kopit sets out to tell the story of how the white man destroyed the Indian in his zealous march across the frontier. Written during the late ‘60s, when agitprop theater picked its targets and then made impassioned denunciations of them, Kopit clearly is deeply ashamed of this chapter in America’s growth.

Of course, he should be. The mistreatment of the Indian was savage and has been clearly documented. But Kopit tends to oversimplify: To portray just about all white characters as near-demons and every Indian as the noble and pure counterpart begs questions of realism and fairness.

Kopit tells the story through Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Hagerty). It’s now late in his career and Cody is overcome by guilt about his legendary slaughter of the buffalo--the Indians’ primary source of food and clothing--and his fame as a Wild West showman.

Through a series of dream-like flashbacks (Steve Pliska’s lighting is somber and mysterious, and set designer Steven Wolf Craig’s use of scrims creates an evanescent, elegiac effect), Kopit re-enacts the participation of Buffalo Bill and others in the Indians’ destruction.

We see them devolve from fierce, dignified warriors to comic caricatures in Buffalo Bill’s show to, ultimately, a tribe of invisible people, forgotten on government reservations.

Director Jensen gets solid performances from most of his actors. As Buffalo Bill, Hagerty is guilty of overdoing it at times, but nonetheless gets us to feel both his bravado and festering guilt. Don Carlson presents a strong characterization of Wild Bill Hickock.

Edward Garcia as Sitting Bull, Rudy Martinez as John Grass and Carlos Martinez as Geronimo are, stylistically, fairly interchangeable--the actors present these chiefs as symbols of strength and equanimity beyond reproach. We understand early on that they are both heroes and victims. As Kopit sees them, they’re like gods driven from a prairie Olympus.

‘Indians’

A Fullerton College production of Arthur Kopit’s play Directed by Robert R. Jensen. With Paul Hagerty, Don Carlson, Amanda DeMaio, Gary Reddish, John Scott, Stuart Benedict, Andy Manlin, Sherman Cox, Debbie Geer, Ken Frank, Robert Shirreffs , Trace Larson, Tim Murphy, Brian Fichtner, Zachary Hahn, Philip Garcia, Edward Garcia, Rudy Martinez, Mark Longoa, Aaron Meyle, Carlos Martinez, Joe Abrams, Ralph Aparicio, Andrew Pinyon, Daniel Estrada, Susana Garcia, Sandra Alvillar, Dannielle Davidson, Missy Larson, Christine Smith, David Monderine, Greg Emerson, Chris Wamsley, Jyll Gleb, Brad Smith, Leah Casaday, Mark Fleshner, Angel Pla and Sean Roberts. Sets by Steven Wolff Craig. Lighting by Steve Pliska. Costumes by Mela Hoyt-Heydon. Sound and makeup by Gary Christian. Choreography by Jeff Wirth and Richard Pallaziol. American Indian adviser: Ron Two Eagles. Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the campus theater, 321 E. Chapman Ave. Tickets: $5 to $8. (714) 871-8101.