COMPLEX TERRAIN IN `PYRENEES'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

Somewhere up near the top of the world -- you can tell because the stage is raised and there are mountains in the background -- an amnesiac, identity-less man in his mid-50s is interviewed by a young woman from the British consulate who has had a few previous incarnations of her own. The gleeful Proprietor of this elevated Valhalla is waiter, busboy, counselor, philosopher and magician. He purports to be of every ethnic descent imaginable.

David Greig's ethereal and elusive play ``Pyrenees'' floats slowly along, promising more depth than it actually delivers. Neel Keller's production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre -- the work's American premiere -- contains a couple of interesting performances, a huge slice of ham from the actor playing the aforementioned Proprietor and a rather inventive use of the Douglas' stage. It also offers a rather hefty ``huh?'' quotient and a certain amount of authorial pretentiousness.

Our protagonist, a gent known only as the Man (played by Tom Irwin), has been found in the snow, high in the Pyrenees, clutching a scallop shell and remembering nothing of who he is or how he got there. Because he has an English accent, the British consulate sends an interviewer to determine whether the Man is jolly old England's responsibility.

Trouble is, comely Anna (Tessa Thompson) isn't particularly good at information gathering. She can barely get her cassette tape unwrapped and asks questions that routinely provoke irritated replies from the Man. Which doesn't much matter since he finds her singularly attractive and has a sense that they have met before, possibly even shared a sexual attraction.

Keller presents this initial encounter/interview -- with colorful interruptions from the Proprietor (Jan Triska) -- as an exacting pas de deux between Irwin and Thompson that leaves the viewer more often thinking about the gaps in Thompson's accent (her character is supposed to be Welsh) than trying to place the Man's. The hours pass and Geoff Korf's lights dye the mountainscape several hues. Ultimately -- finally! -- a woman named Vivienne Sutherland (Frances Conroy) arrives bearing information about the Man's actual identity. Curtain, Act 1.

It's to Irwin and Conroy's considerable credit that we're able to accept at least a couple of these characters as human beings instead of the philosophical constructs that Greig has written. Irwin's living blank slate of a man (the Proprietor calls him ``pilgrim'') is bristly, occasionally emotional and able to take real delight in the rediscovery that he was once a smoker. His backstroke, when it arrives, doesn't seem so implausible.

Conroy is so measured and calm in the face of some real fury that she basically grounds the play. And she doesn't arrive until some 45 minutes in. The inevitable confrontation between Anna and Vivienne over a kind of possession of our pilgrim plays less mawkishly than it should -- again, thanks to Conroy.

I don't pretend to know what the Proprietor is doing in ``Pyrenees'' beyond affording Triska the chance to go a bit nuts and give the audience a few quick, easy laughs when things start to crawl. If Greig is working the irony over the fact that a man who could be anybody ends up at an inn run by a man who is everybody, then perhaps the point could be made with a bit less zaniness.

Mark Wendland's set boosts the Douglas stage several feet above eye level, leaving the lower section darkened. From the outside terrace, where all the action takes place, actors can take a spiral staircase both up or down. Lighting designer Korf does stellar work both with the overhead lights and illuminating the mountain backdrop. The whole setup is abstract enough that -- the play's title notwithstanding -- these events could indeed be happening anywhere.

And to anybody. An audience's ability to believe this, to imagine themselves as blank-slate pilgrims may help them key into ``Pyrenees' '' etherealness. Still, Greig takes us on a long climb to reach a not-so-satisfying summit.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

PYRENEES - Two and one half stars

Where: Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City.

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

Tickets: $20 to $40. [phone] or visit www.centertheatregroup.com

In a nutshell: Love, identity and existentialism at 10,000 feet.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Tessa Thompson, left, Tom Irwin and Frances Conroy star in ``Pyrenees,'' at the Kirk Douglas Theatre through July 30.