EMOTIONS RUN HOT AND COLD IN BARD'S 'THE WINTER'S TALE'.

Byline: EVAN HENERSON

>THEATER CRITIC

First things first: If you betake yourself to A Noise Within's largely solid production of "The Winter's Tale," get yourself as centered as you possibly can to ensure maximum avoidance of the poles.

Yes, the poles. Big long silver rods they are, slanting diagonally from the stage floor to the ceiling like some kind of unfinished jungle gym or spider web. Set designer Darcy Scanlin has a cast member reposition them once the action of Shakespeare's gloomy romance shifts from Sicilia to Bohemia, and those poles get hung with flowers during a Bohemian sheep-shearing fest.

Otherwise, those set pieces are a distraction in a production that is otherwise plenty engaging.

Time -- signaling mortality? -- imposes its presence over director Geoff Elliott's mostly straight-ahead production. Addled Sicilian King Leontes (played by the director) is hearing that ticking clock even before he sets his jealous gaze upon his queen and boyhood friend. A kind of prologue has Leontes cuddling and reading a primer with his treasured son, Mamillius, looking rather forlorn as he's doing it.

Leontes may well be looking over his shoulder, and the actor playing the role certainly is. After all, he's got a crateful of rage, self torture and madness to pack into a couple of acts before dropping out of the play while Shakespeare takes us to Sicilia.

Of course, Mamillius (played by Nicholas Apostolina) isn't long for this world either, but there's no need to shed too many tears for the boy since both he and Steven Weingartner's Antigonus stick around to be ghostly benevolent presences. Solitary violinist Endre Balogh, who created the show's musical compositions, wanders the stage as well.

In dissipation or otherwise, Elliott is rather terrifying as a good man brought down by bad thoughts. We're essentially watching the man -- who, the performance suggests was already on the edge -- driving himself mad.

It could be argued that Shakespeare wrote the falsely accused Hermione a far more eloquent self-defense presentation than he ever gave "Othello's" Desdemona. Jill Hill's formidable Hermione is a presence all her own. Eschewing regality, she's quaintly coquettish with Polixenes, loving to her husband and positively doting on Mamillius before things go terribly wrong. The director even has her appearing at her judgment wearing a shift still bloody from childbirth.

"The Winter's Tale" is a roller coaster of a play anyway, starting, as it does, with an offer of benevolence and careening through some really horrible consequences of Leontes' jealousy including a rather important character being devoured by a bear.

We then cross the seas to an Edenic Bohemia where shepherds are in full frolic, before returning to Sicilia where a sculpture comes to life -- yes, you read that right -- to set things right.

The tonal shifts between sullen Sicilia and bouncing Bohemia are duly recognized; the scene veritably bursts into color (partially accomplished through Peter Gottlieb's lighting) once we change locales.

Big-time suspension of disbelief is required for "The Winter's Tale." Do that -- and steer clear of the poles -- and you'll find A Noise Within's "Tale" to be a fine one, indeed.

Evan Henerson [phone]

[e-mail]

THE WINTER'S TALE - Three stars

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

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through Dec. 8. Plays in rotating repertory. Call for specific show days and times.

Tickets: $36 to $40 [phone], Ext. 1.

In a nutshell: Gloom and buoyancy are in equal measure in this fine rendering of Shakespeare's dark romance.

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Photo:

Deborah Strang and Geoff Elliott grapple with jealousy's effects in "The Winter's Tale."