Good week for political theater

On Saturday, Father Daniel Berrigan's Vietnam-era protest drama, "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine," opens at The Actors' Gang in Culver City. And on Wednesday, L.A. Theatre Works begins a five-day run at the Skirball of "Betrayed," journalist George Packer's on-the-ground account of the perils faced by America's Iraqi interpreters. Berrigan and his fellow activists galvanized the anti-war movement when they burned records from a Maryland draft office in 1968. Three years later, Gordon Davidson dared to stage Berrigan's version of events here at the Mark Taper Forum. FBI agents reportedly lurked in the audience at the premiere, hoping to flush out the fugitive priest-playwright. (Berrigan was later captured and spent 18 months in prison.) "The Catonsville Nine" made another notable appearance in town two years ago when Davidson directed an all-star reading to benefit organizations including The Actors' Gang. "Betrayed" was adapted from a 2007 New Yorker article by Packer, who specializes in bringing home the cruelties and complexities of life in Africa and the Mideast. His play, which debuted in New York a year ago, follows the harrowing experiences of three young Iraqis who sign up to help the U.S. after Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, only to be abandoned when things start going to hell. If that's not enough politics for you, the stage version of Peter Morgan's "Frost/Nixon" is coming to the Ahmanson Theatre in March. Why see the movie?