Edition: U.S. / Global  THEATER REVIEW; Radiance, Rebellion and
Trust  Published: May 2, 1999  CONSIDER a distressing question
facing the habitual theatergoer. Does a deadening production of
a great living play deserve to be called valiant, or even
ambitious, just because it's there?  Athol Fugard's radiant
''Road to Mecca'' is rendered a disservice by the director Margo
Whitcomb in the pedestrian production at the Centenary Stage
Company here. The play concerns a glowing friendship -- and its
defining element, trust -- between Miss Helen, a radiant older
woman with the soul of an artist, and Elsa, a young
schoolteacher with a rebel's spirit.  Miss Helen (Frances Peter)
is an apolitical character, unusual for a play Mr. Fugard wrote
during apartheid. Elsa (Kristin Ketterer) is not. Without two
impassioned performances, their first act confrontation can be
long-winded. In this production, which amounts to hardly more
than a flat recitation and is not quite up to the level of a
staged reading, it is unbearable,