'THE MISER' HAS AUDIENCE IN ITS POCKET.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

A FREQUENTLY great moment in Moliere's ``The Miser'' occurs when Harpagon, the title character, having discovered that his buried stash is missing, demands an explanation from the audience as to its whereabouts. And why not? We've been there all along. We must have seen what happened, no? So can we help?

Actually, no, we can't, much to poor Harpagon's misfortune. Even so, watching Mark Bramhall's Harpagon realize that, yes, there are actually people out there is one of many delights offered by Craig Belknap's production of ``The Miser'' at Glendale's A Noise Within. The scene, played with great comic anxiousness and a sense of entitlement, is a kind of awakening from a money-obsessed coma. Prior to this, Harpagon has been more than a little fixated with his own plots to take heed of what's been happening under his very nose.

He's got good reason for this single-mindedness. Director Belknap has set the action of the play on the eve of the 1929 stock-market crash. With a mass of his possessions - most with price tags - in an unsightly heap in the front room (courtesy of set designer Trefoni Michael Rizzi), Harpagon shuttles anxiously back and forth between his cash box and a ticker-tape machine. Sporting an Einsteinian shock of wild gray hair, he's like an aged doomsaying accountant who nobody heeds. Which is too bad since the man apparently knows which way the wind is blowing.

His children think he's a fanatic and the warden to their imprisonment. And they're right, too. For purely financial reasons, Harpagon wants to marry off daughter Elise (played by Dayna Soloman) to a man she doesn't love, and he has his own eye on Marianne (Annie Quinn), his son Cleante's (Adam Grahm Smith) intended.

The production's high-jinks are spirited and laced with an occasional touch of moodiness. The action begins with Elise and her beau - servant Valere - having completed a tryst under a carpet covering Harpagon's possessions. Cleante comes in soon afterward, followed by a pair of feuding domestics, and we're off and running. The entrance of Mary Boucher's Frosine, a wise matchmaker with her own agenda, brings in a new and equally welcome comic energy.

From ANW's usual solid acting to the handsome scenic touches, Belknap's production buzzes right along. David Chambers' translation dispenses with the sing-songy tone and stretched rhymes, making the dialogue feel like conversation more often than poetry. Audiences have certainly seen sunnier and friskier stagings of Moliere, but this is a gloomier play updated to a decidedly gloomier era.

Laughs and poignancy share equal space. Harpagon may still be a money-obsessed dolt where his children are concerned, but you get the sense that there's some real sorrow at play when Smith's Cleante and Bramhall's Harpagon fall out.

Ultimately of course, Harpagon will give up Marianne and any dreams of Elise marrying richly as long as he gets his money back. No Scrooge here, the man's too much in need of a security blanket to put up much resistance. But while he does resist, ``The Miser'' has its engine. Bramhall, at the wheel, keeps the gears well oiled.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

THE MISER - Three and one half stars

Where: A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale.

When: In rotating repertory, 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; through Dec. 7. Call for specific show dates.

Tickets: $20 to $40. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: A handsome and timely staging with a great performance by Mark Bramhall in the title role.

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Mark Bramhall brings the conflicted title character to life in Moliere's ``The Miser,'' at A Noise Within.