PROVIDENCE - Dirt.

It's where we come from, where we're headed. In Trinity Repertory Company's magnificent reworking of "All the King's Men," it's what is slung and what is dug up - both to bury the bodies and to ruin political adversaries.

"Dirt into diamonds," says the spellbinding governing bully Willie Stark. "God breathed into the dirt and made a man."

"You can get dirt about anybody. It's there."

In an epic staging that rivals Shakesperian tragedy, Trinity Rep has reinvented Adrian Hall's adaption of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Penn Warren novel, most overtly with the casting of black actor Joe Wilson Jr. as the powerful blackmailer Willie Stark, who rises from farming poverty to become the most dynamic force in Louisiana in the 1930s (based on the real life story of Huey Long). Making Stark a black man adds racial and social dynamics that would be impossible in reality, but produces an even finer edge and palpable tension to an already tense and cutting script. Director Brian McEleney's choice of Wilson - a Louisiana native himself who knows the struggles of the po' in that state better than anyone else in Trinity's ensemble - is inspired.

Wilson is stupendous as Stark - bombastic, brutal, charming, fitful, a spellbinder of epic proportions. When he sings the first song of the show (Yes, at times the show feels like a mini-musical with six songs, four written by the great Randy Newman and one by Gov. Huey Long himself) the doleful blues riff "Louisiana," about the great state flood of the 1920s, the show is instantly and eerily relevant, awash in the echoes of Hurricane Katrina.

Wilson actually left Providence two years ago to help with Katrina relief, and the blues remain within him.

Trinity first staged this testosterone-fueled saga of Southern abuse of capitol might 20 years ago.

It holds up better than ever because the political themes of power, corruption, greed, duplicity, scandal and assassination are as prevalent now in this country as they have ever been.

(Example: When Stark is asked why he keeps a little piece of vermin around him on staff, he says, "Well, somebody has to be lieutenant governor!" which got the biggest laugh of the night from the Rhode Island crowd.)

Mauro Hantman plays Jack Burden, a man who is still a child of sorts, a reporter who, when fired from his newspaper, is hired by Stark to be his gopher and dirt-digger. As an actor, this may be Hantman's finest hour (well, almost three hours, actually). His character's growth from dysfunctional man/boy to loyal worker to upstanding man, all while telling the tale of his dynamic boss, feels real with no sense of pretense.

Hantman and Wilson are the lynchpins the other members of the ensemble dance around, over, under and through. Though they are the lead heavyweights in this ring battle, they are helped to great measure by some terrific supporting performances, notably Stephen Berenson as Tiny, the smug, small, smarmy politico who ends up being Judas to Stark's Messiah complex; a wily Fred Sullivan Jr. as the smooth Judge Irwin, who holds at least two very powerful secrets; a fantastic Phyllis Kay as the woman who makes, and later breaks, Stark; Stephen Thorne as the righteous Dr. Stanton, do-gooder turned assassin; and Angela Brazil as Stark's latest, and most impressive mistress.

While the show itself is huge in scope - with three separate, perfect Michael McGarty sets in three different corners, and a cast of 18, including many newcomers plucked from the Trinity Repertory Consortium of young actors - it is staged in the more intimate downstairs theater, giving it a much-more in-your-face element.

You can feel the spittle when the speakers spew. McEleney's device of actually giving one section of the audience a kind of carnival ride all night, being pulled, tugged and moved literally and figuratively all over the space by cast members so that they look like bleacher sitters during one of Stark's many impressive stump speeches, is a fantastic touch.

Trinity newcomers are all solid - Charlie Hudson III as the stammering gunman Sugar Boy, Kelby Akin in two redneck roles, Jill Knox as the much put upon wife Lucy Stark, Alan McNaney in three roles, Scott Raker in three more, among them.

Act I is filled with tightly-written fervor, as scene after scene swim by with vigor, and Wilson's rise is so compelling you want to vote for him. Act II is a bit too long. The climax of the piece - the shocking end of Stark when he is on the verge of a real epiphany himself after hurting so many - is followed with almost a half-hour of anti-climax and denouement.

But the acting, directing, singing and staging are so strong, you'll need a good, hot shower to wash off the stickiness and all that staining dirt.

"ALL THE KING'S MEN" runs through Oct. 21 at Trinity Repertory Co., 201 Washington St., Providence. Ticket prices range from $20 to $60. Call 401-351-4242 for tickets and more information.