BOURNE SUPREMACY INNOVATIVE CHOREOGRAPHER STAYS HOT WITH 'PLAY WITHOUT WORDS'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

Wanted: performers without pigeonholes. To work for a director without boundaries. Some experience - in the male swan arena - helpful, but not required.

If a dancer fits the above description he or she may be born - or Bourne - to undertake a New Adventure.

``In the auditions, I look at them as much when they're not dancing as when they are dancing,'' says Matthew Bourne, director and choreographer of ``Matthew Bourne's Play Without Words'' and the artistic director of New Adventures. ``I watch them interact with each other, and see what sorts of questions they ask, and learn quite a lot. And they do have to be able to dance. That rules them out straight away if they can't string movement together or if they're too stuck in one form. You need to be very flexible in these shows.''

By now, of course, aspiring Bourne company members have some sense of what they're getting into when they move/speak/interact or otherwise audition for Bourne. With his reinterpretations of ``Cinderella,'' ``Carmen'' (``The Car Man''), ``The Nutcracker'' and especially ``Swan Lake'' touring the globe, the multiple award-winning director and his unique works are hot properties.

All of the above-mentioned titles - except ``Nutcracker'' - have played the Ahmanson Theatre, where ``Play Without Words'' opens Monday. ``Nutcracker'' played a Christmas 2004 engagement at UCLA's Royce Hall, and ``Swan Lake'' returns to the Ahmanson in March 2006.

Bourne, meanwhile, is staying busy. In addition to his New Adventures projects, Bourne choreographed the Disney Theatricals/Cameron Mackintosh production of ``Mary Poppins'' in England's West End and will next tackle a new version of ``Edward Scissorhands.''

His shows have won accolades and awards around the world and have even morphed into movies. Remember the Oscar-nominated film ``Billy Elliot'' (2000)? That was essentially Bourne's production of ``Swan Lake'' that the grown-up Billy joins at the film's conclusion.

``People want to be in this company,'' says Bourne. ``They think, 'Oh, this is the company for me. I'm a dancer, but I also like acting. I like performing. I love to do what this company does.' ''

In casting ``Play Without Words,'' which played two stints at Britain's National Theatre and comes to the Ahmanson Theatre following a smash run at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bourne was looking for a maturity of performance requiring an equal amount of acting and movement savvy.

The piece, loosely based on a 1963 Harold Pinter film titled ``The Servant,'' is indeed wordless. In it, a wealthy young man named Anthony in 1960s Britain invites his fiancee, Glenda, to his swanky London estate only to become bewitched by a housekeeper, Sheila, while a friend, Speight, seduces Glenda. Manservant Prentice watches the action and finds his power shifting. Multiple actors - sharing the stage at the same time - play each role, allowing the encounters to comment on each other. The work is set to an original jazz score composed by Terry Davies.

Sound confusing? Well, maybe it is for a few minutes, but Bourne advises his audiences to relax for the first five or 10 minutes. Characters and relationships will come clear.

``It's almost like thoughts going through your head, stream of consciousness, and characters doubling up,'' says Bourne. ``Eventually, it settles down and you know what you're watching. There's no natural conclusion, no point where you can say, 'Oh that's what that is about.' You're using your mind constantly.''

``I also don't want anyone to have to have read anything beforehand to be able to get it,'' he adds. ``I don't like synopses. I don't want (audiences) having a prior knowledge of anything.''

Reviewing the production's premiere during a London jaunt in 2002, New York Times theater critic Ben Brantley called ``Play Without Words'' ``the most vital new piece of musical theater in London ... an oddly reassuring reminder that a world that is losing its bearings can be rendered with transporting grace.''

Bourne dreamed up the idea when outgoing National Theatre Director Trevor Nunn requested a piece for his farewell season of new works. The catch: Bourne was given only four weeks to put it together. Bourne suggested some kind of ``play without words.'' Nunn wrote the idea down, and the unofficial title ended up sticking.

``We were prepared for it to fail. Luckily, it did work,'' says Scott Ambler, associate director of New Directions and one of ``Play Without Words' '' Prentices. ``This harks back a little bit to Matthew's earlier work with his Adventures in Motion Pictures company. It's a little bit more of a chamber piece with a lot of detail. Shows like 'Swan Lake,' 'Car Man' and 'Nutcracker' are much broader shows designed for much larger venues.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

MATTHEW BOURNE'S PLAY WITHOUT WORDS

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through May 29.

Tickets: $30 to $85. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) - Matthew Bourne, on his dance troupe, New Adventures.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(2 -- 3) Set in 1960s Britain, ``Play Without Words'' looks at temptation and infidelity. The production at the Ahmanson Theatre features Belinda Lee Chapman and Richard Winsor, below, and Scott Ambler and Steve Kirkham, at left.