‘Carnage’ shows how things haven’t changed

In the Actor’s Gang’s “Carnage, A Comedy,” the marriage of right-wing religion and the military-industrial-entertainment complex has produced a brood of apocalyptic children: hate-mongering radio hosts, bomb-throwing fanatics, private militias and sub-prime lenders. So far, so familiar. But check the program -- Adam Simon and Tim Robbins’ gleeful satire of compulsive belief was written 20 years ago, around the time the FCC repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which required media outlets to present opposing views to all editorial commentary.

Director Beth F. Milles’ high-voltage revival of this prescient 1987 satire shows just how disastrously little progress the U.S. has made in the self-awareness department. Our parable takes place at God’s Happy Acre, mega-church and theme park. The place is in trouble: The cure quotient is down, and the annual Las Vegas prayer sojourn may have to be canceled. Founder and super-preacher Cotton Slocum (the excellent V.J. Foster, trembling with righteousness) goes on a fundraising pilgrimage across the desert, leaving a creepy protege (Justin Zsebe) to pursue his secret paramilitary ambitions.

One can’t help but feel that Simon and Robbins rather admire evangelical mojo, what with its outsized theatrics and big hair, and “Carnage” works best when you sense the authors upending their assumptions (as in the terrific opening scene, where Slocum teaches Tuck how to work a crowd). For the first 90 minutes, Milles whips this carnival of lost souls into fierce shape, finding edge and surprise in nearly every scene. The cast is pitch perfect. Unfortunately, Act 2 devolves into the very preachiness the playwrights purport to attack. There are ghostly echoes of “King Lear” and “Elmer Gantry” as Slocum stumbles through the desert. But tonally, you feel as if the play loses its earlier sense of curiosity.

As always with the Actors’ Gang, the details carry the day: a tight three-piece band, led by Cameron Dye, that keeps the action up tempo; the creepiest rabbit demise since “Fatal Attraction”; and costumer Alix Hester’s rapture fashion.

If only “Carnage” didn’t implode just like its holy-roller protagonist. Simon and Robbins are too smart and funny for that. And their audience knows the difference.

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‘Carnage, A Comedy’

Where: The Actors’ Gang, Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays

Ends: March 8

Price: $20 to $25

Contact: (310) 838-GANG

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes