BOTANICUM'S 'MERCHANT' KNOWS HOW TO SELL IT.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

BY THE TIME Alan Blumenfeld's Shylock repeats ``I will have my bond'' with pit-bull resolution, we know why nothing less than a pound of Antonio's anti-Semitic flesh will appease him.

Too often during the staging of Shakespeare's ``The Merchant of Venice'' at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is Shylock assaulted, spat upon, insulted and generally treated like refuse. His daughter, Jessica (played by Abby Craden) gets mistreated as well. Once in a blue moon, Shylock even fights back. Indeed, the production contains so much lunging, menacing and flailing, it occasionally feels like an Elizabethan version of ``The Jerry Springer Show.''

Blumenfeld is easily the production's anchor, its greatest strength. Chilly and darkly humorous, this is by no means a Shylock to admire, and certainly not one to pity. Yet by the time the judges and court attendants are running Shylock down during Antonio's trial and Shylock's kipah is plucked from his head as part of his punishment (he must convert to Christianity), we have witnessed a culture that breeds hate and vengefulness. By playing up the ugliness of Shylock's neighbors, director Ellen Geer shows us his tormentors are no better than he is.

Caught in the middle is Craden's quite-solid Jessica, who escapes her father's tyranny - stealing his money in the process - only to find herself something of an outsider in the arms of Lorenzo (Mike Peeber). As the final curtain falls, Craden steps apart, casting an ambiguous glance to the house she left, the house where Shylock is alone and, apparently, still following his religion in secret. Craden's Jessica understands, and still feels some pain of separation. There's nothing callow about this daughter.

The Portia/Bassanio love story is less engaging. In Susan Angelo's hands (she shares the role with Melora Marshall), Portia goes from girlishly petulant to wise and stalwart awfully quickly and the blond wig she wears looks like something out of an Old West melodrama.

The characters with comic potential, meanwhile, have clearly been instructed to crank up the ammo and go for it, which they do with varying degrees of success. On the humorous side are Ted Barton as Shylock's turncoat servant Launcelot Gobbo and Jeff Marlowe as Portia's unlucky suitor, the Prince of Arragon. Marlowe is doing something out of an ``SNL'' skit, but heaven knows he earns his laughs.

There's certainly a major gap in tone between the comic antics of Gobbo and Shylock's revenge quest, but not enough to prevent this ``Merchant'' from being a thoughtful, mostly well-acted affair. Blumenfeld alone is worth the price of admission.

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE - Three stars

Where: Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Road, Topanga.

When: 4 p.m. Sundays; through Sept. 29.

Tickets: $8 to $22. Call [phone].