“Stalag 17” is best known as a 1953 motion picture starring William Holden, who won an Academy Award for his performance.

The Conejo Players Theatre recently concluded a two-week run of the original play, written by Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, a taut, well-directed effort by James Cluster.

The story takes place in a German prisoner-of-war camp during World War II.

A group of captured American airmen discovers there is in their midst a Nazi plant who reports any escape plans or other disruptive behavior to the Germans before anything has a chance to happen.

When Dunbar (Ian Kilpatrick), a new prisoner who is suspected of sabotaging a German train, arrives at the camp, the race is on to expose the Nazi spy before he can report on Dunbar’s activities, which would most certainly result in his execution.

R. Shane Bingham plays Sefton, a self-serving, cynical POW who’s decided to get through the war as comfortably as possible.

He turns his stay into a business, trading cigarettes to Nazi guards for food and other comforts and not sharing anything with his fellow prisoners.

The problem with Bingham’s Sefton is that he’s too likable, and the vitriolic attitude his bunkmates have toward him at the outset of the play almost seems unfair.

The audience should detest Sefton, too, but Bingham doesn’t show his character’s brooding personality enough. This is a key to making Sefton the red herring, the one the audience is supposed to believe is the spy, while the likable, affable guy in the barracks turns out to be the real snake.

The barracks chief, “Hoffy” Hoffman, is authoritatively played by David Parmenter. Hoffy’s aide is the amiable Price (Arryck Adams), who is in charge of security.

The other prisoners josh each other, complain about the conditions and generally act like Americans should.

One of the best performances is by Brian Bookbinder as Harry Shapiro; he is continually amusing and believable as a fun-loving Brooklynite.

The two key Nazi roles are the German captain (Keith Hurt) and Corporal Schultz (David W. Wright), the spy’s contact, who sends and retrieves messages through a clever “mailbox” system, utilizing a chess set and a hanging light bulb.

Both Hurt and Wright are well-coached in their German accents, with Hurt speaking full lines of fluent German in his believable portrayal.

The most disquieting moment in the play comes from an unexpected quarter: a character who doesn’t say a word throughout the whole show. David L. Smith plays Horney, a prisoner who has spent six months in solitary confinement and comes out in a near catatonic state, quietly blowing on an ocarina in his bunk.

The only time Horney reacts to anything that goes on around him is when Hoffy, who refuses to disclose where the prisoners have hidden Dunbar, is beltwhipped by Schultz (a scene not used in the film).

When Smith puts a hand on the shoulder of the battered Hoffy, there is empathetic understanding in his eyes. It is the most emotional moment of the entire play.

Midway through the play, the identity of the spy is revealed to the audience, which changes the mystery to suspense, and the tension mounts until the inevitable climax.

When the prisoners finally identify the spy, they turn into a vigilante mob.

Hoffy questions the morality of what they are about to do, but only briefly. (In the film, there is no hesitation whatsoever.) This disturbing scene suggests that we are just as capable of fierce brutality as they were.

Plaudits to Conejo Players for staging this still remarkable and riveting play.