By Julie Stern

NEW MILFORD — In 1924, long before revelations of the Holocaust would bring new dimensions to our conception of human evil and before the media’s preoccupation with violent crime desensitized the public to the point where murder has lost its shock value, Americans were stunned and appalled by a pair of University of Chicago sophomores, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

The wealthy scions of prominent local families, Leopold and Loeb together kidnapped and murdered the ten-year-old son of a friend of their parents in a phony kidnapping plot. They were inspired by the German philosopher Nietzsche’s concept of the “ubermensch,” or superman, who was supposed to have such total emotional control that he could be coolly indifferent to pity, fear, guilt, or remorse. This indifference to the opinions of others would enable the superman to take the ruthless but necessary steps to dominate the ordinary people of the world and so become one of the great movers and shakers of history, a new Caesar or a Napoleon.

It was the student Raskolnikov’s desire to prove himself a superman by accomplishing the perfect murder that formed the basis of Dostoevsky’s novel, Crime and Punishment. Leopold and Loeb would eventually become the prototypes for a number of literary works, from the Hitchcock movie Rope to the Meyer Levin novel (and subsequent film) Compulsion.

John Logan’s incisive and intelligent work, Never the Sinner, is a courtroom drama that views the crime from the perspective of an outraged society. The great American trial lawyer Clarence Darrow explores the issue of why and how two young men endowed with money, intelligence and social prestige would be moved to commit such an atrocity, and argues powerfully against the death penalty.

Since the crime was badly botched and their guilt is unquestionable, the playwright interweaves flashbacks of the boys planning the crime and episodes of interrogation by a series of psychologists to build a searing portrait of what is known as “folie a deux:” As a function of their unique relationship, two people engage in forbidden behavior that neither one would have dared on their own.

TheatreWorks New Milford has selected Logan’s intelligent work for its season opener, and it is a good choice that works well.

Jackhob Hofmann and Zach Wegner are the aloof and awkward birdwatcher, Leopold, and the charming athlete, Loeb, respectively. The companions are the repository of each other’s secret urges: Loeb’s impulses to court danger and hurt unsuspecting innocents, and Leopold’s sexual attraction to his handsome and reckless friend. A psychic bargain is struck in which each goes along with the other’s wishes.

Jonathan Ross, who has the apparently easy job of State’s Attorney Robert Crowe, and Marty Fay, Jacqueline J. Decho and Brian Schmiedel in a series of minor roles as reporters, psychologists and court officers, all contribute to the effectiveness of the drama.

Richard Pettibone’s direction, Lesley Neilson-Bowman’s costumes, and the use of newspaper accounts flashed on screens all contribute to the authentic sense of America in the Twenties, in a play that is serious, thoughtful and entertaining.

(Performances of Never The Sinner and Loeb will continue on weekends at TheatreWorks New Milford through April 15. For ticket information and reservations, call 860/350-6863.)