Never The Sinner, now being staged by Actors Theatre of Washington, begins as a fascinating charcter study of Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two lovers who decided to kill a man just because they could. The act was one of the first to claim “Crime of the Century” status, and watching the pair’s relationship develop and their depravity unfold makes for some interesting theater.

In the first act, anyway. Then the play becomes a plodding courtroom drama that doesn’t have much to say. We learn very little more about our two antiheroes (Loeb aches for his mother’s approval and affection? Fine, but give us more), and instead are treated mostly to stump speeches from attorney Clarence Darrow (John C. Bailey, in a steady, impassioned portrayal).

The themes of the second act, ranging from the validity of capital punishment to the concept of hating the crime rather than the one who committed it, also get a bit lost in the muddle. And while some staging decisions can be amusing (a vaudeville-style scene, for one), others can seem annoyingly familiar — when Loeb becomes a marionette doll, it calls to mind a bit too quickly another tale of merry murderers from Cook County — Chicago.

The choice to have our three actors take on multiple, often flip-flopping roles also becomes confusing and distancing. One could understand the decision not to clutter up the stage with too many actors, but the action jumps around too much to be intelligible, and it reduces the performers to line-readers rather than characters.