STAGE

Charlton Heston has begun directing a Chinese version of “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” and anticipates the show’s success--even if he can’t understand a word of Mandarin. “I don’t understand what the actors are saying,” the Oscar-winning actor said Monday. “But the subject of the play is something anyone can understand.” Heston arrived in Peking last week to direct a stage version of Herman Wouk’s story, being performed in Mandarin Chinese by the People’s Art Theater. The opening performance is scheduled for Oct. 18. Zhu Xu, a well-known Chinese stage and television actor who plays Capt. Queeg, the tormented commander of the U.S.S. Caine, said of his renowned director: “We’ve managed to communicate. He knows the play.”