Modern drama doesn't have much use for heroes. How could it? After Darwin told us we're cousins to apes, and Marx informed us we're puppets of economic forces, and Freud unmasked us as playthings of the unconscious, where was there room for independent moral agents, masters of their destiny? Again and again, modern theater treats the free and strong moral actor as a vestige of an antiquated worldview, an irrelevant fiction undeserving of contemporary concern. And as for role models — well, you'd better look elsewhere. On the modern stage, the worst are full of passionate intensity, and the best have retired to the margins.

So it's a surprise and a relief to encounter A Man for All Seasons again, currently showing in a likable but flawed production by the Alley Cat Players. In Robert Bolt's 1960 play, Sir Thomas More heroically refuses to compromise his beliefs, even when that refusal threatens to send him to the executioner's block. More's reasoning is simple: He'll stay true to his conscience, whatever the consequences.

As everyone around him orders or begs him to give way, More the hero remains steadfast: We may live in a world of cowards and opportunists, he seems to say, but it's also possible to have principles, to live for them and — if necessary — to die for them. And, he might add, a gentle soul puts the lie to any number of humanity's detractors.

How did an intellectual like More ever find himself a religious martyr? The story Bolt tells comes, of course, from 16th century English history. King Henry the Eighth (Jeff Sargent) is exasperated by his wife Catherine's inability to provide him with a male heir. He resolves to be divorced, but his Chancellor, More (Ned Averill-Snell) won't agree to a divorce that the Catholic Church, in the person of the Pope, doesn't authorize.

At first Henry tolerates More's relatively quiet disobedience, but as time goes on, he comes to feel it as a public affront. Using his secretary Cromwell (Brian Shea) as his agent, Henry puts increasing pressure on More, eventually demanding that he take an oath accepting Henry as head of the English church. Again, More refuses; so Henry has More imprisoned in the Tower of London. Even when his wife (Clare Ward) and daughter (Kari Keller) plead with him to change course and win the king's pardon, More refuses to recant.

The Alley Cat production gives us this story in modern dress and with nontraditional casting (women — Katrina Stevenson and D. Davis — playing the Common Man and the Spanish Ambassador, an African-American — Joshua Goff — playing More's son-in-law William Roper). But the problems with the production have more to do with acting than with the update.

To begin with, Ned Averill-Snell plays More's heroic aspects well enough but seldom shows us other levels of the great man's personality. Averill-Snell's on stage quite a lot, and we can't help but scrutinize him all through the evening, but this close attention isn't rewarded by the actor's limited interpretation. Fortunately, several other actors — especially John Snell as Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Cranmer, Brian Shea as Cromwell and Jeff Sargent as King Henry — bring us excellent work. But Mark Trent, Clare Ward and Goff aren't so convincing, and in any case, the play's about More. If we're not riveted by his character, we're missing the central pleasure of Bolt's script.

Another problem is the set, designed by actor Averill-Snell. It features four pillars, two of which support inverted grayish triangles of what look like fragmented concrete. It's impossible to tell what this is supposed to represent (Columns for the English Renaissance? Fragments for the split with Rome?), and on a fairly small stage, the effect is regrettable.

The company's costumes, however, are pleasantly contemporary (a lot of coats and ties) and Lloyd Pearson's lighting is always judicious. Jo Averill-Snell's direction is another of the production's strong points; she moves her 11-member cast around the small stage with aplomb.

So there are details to like here, flaws or not. This is a solidly written play about real moral courage, and if it doesn't move us as it might in a better production, still it impresses our intellect and our own moral consciousness. Thomas More's cause may not be ours; but we can still take inspiration from the steadfastness with which he upheld it. And even in an imperfect production, we can take pleasure in making the acquaintance of the man Samuel Johnson called "the person of the greatest virtue" that England ever produced.

Especially in an age that downplays its heroes, it's good to be reintroduced to gentle, unshakable Sir Thomas More.

Louis, Louis If you like jazz, swing, blues, or just music in general, you'll have a great old time at Satchmo, Claude McNeal's delightful cabaret currently playing at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

This one's all about terrific singing from Bill White as Louis Armstrong, Jonathan Harrison in multiple roles, and LaDonna Burns and Yolonda Williams individually and as a snazzy duet. White does as good a Satchmo impersonation as you could hope for, and the others bring us Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Pearl Bailey and more. The sketchy biography that runs through the evening never keeps us far from a show-stopper. Some of my favorites: "Ain't Misbehavin'," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "Gone Fishin'" and "Birth of the Blues."

This one's a winner. If you love music, don't miss it.

Fiery Premiere There's an unusually interesting world premiere at Blake High School for the Performing Arts this weekend. The school is presenting the first complete staging of Michael T. Roberts' Lotus Blooming in a Sea of Fire, a rock musical about the Vietnam War and the My Lai massacre. The play's only other production was a concert reading at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Author Roberts, a Dartmouth graduate, is currently Artist in Residence at Blake, and is serving as musical director for the production. Directing the show is local actor/teacher Eric Davis.

Performances begin each night at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. Blake High is located at 1701 N. Boulevard, Tampa. For more information, call 272-3422.

Contact Mark E. Leib at mark.leib@weeklyplanet.com or call 813-248-8888, ext. 305.

This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2003.