LAWRENCE'S EROTIC CLASSIC BROUGHT TO LIFE.

Byline: Julio Martinez Correspondent

There is a built-in problem inherent in attempting to adapt a novel to a live stage presentation. The depths of an author's talent is less represented by dialogue than by the descriptive passages that often come off as static, characterless narration when reproduced on stage.

The John Vreeke/Mary Machara adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's erotic masterpiece, ``Lady Chatterley's Lover,'' as staged by Vreeke, more than overcomes this difficulty by seamlessly integrating the novelist's richly descriptive prose into the emotional subtext of each character's interaction with another. The end result is a beautifully evocative melding of thought and action, performed by a perfectly cast six-member ensemble.

Set in Great Britain during the pre- and post-World War I years (1913-1924), the once-banned history of the sexual awakening of aristocratic Lady Constance (Connie) Chatterley (Lesley Fera) under the relentlessly sensual influence of working-class gamekeeper Mellors (Timothy Murphy) is as true to Lawrence as one can get without climbing into the pages of the novel itself.

The author's declaration that uninhibited sexual union is the only pure communication that can exist between a man and a woman is realized with breathtaking commitment by Fera and Murphy. Their ever-deepening physical and spiritual passion for one another is counterbalanced by the multifaceted forces of post-Victorian social conformity as represented by the more than effective quartet of Michael Tulin, Andi Carnick, Amy Warner and Bruce French, who play multiple roles.

Performing on a near-bare stage, Fera's emotionally frustrated Connie and Murphy's surly, anti-social Mellors actually appear to grow into one another as they slowly unbind themselves from their respective social restraints, eventually thinking and acting as one joyous, single-minded soul. Their wildly uninhibited second-act nude romp during a driving rainstorm (impressively realized by the lighting and sound effects of John Fejes and Andrea Sumpter/Phillis Osman, respectively) serves as a final cathartic unleashing of their lives from the deadening shallowness that surrounds them.

Fera and Murphy are surrounded by a plethora of outstanding portrayals. Tulin creates a thoroughly sympathetic persona as Connie's crippled husband, Sir Clifford Chatterley, a basically good-hearted intellectual who is reduced to the level of vengeful child by Connie's utter rejection of him. Carnick offers a perfectly etched portrayal of amoral social superiority as Connie's ultra-sophisticated sister, Hilda.

Special mention must go to the performances of Warner as the uneducated but worldly-wise district nurse Mrs. Bolton and French's rip-roaring outing as Connie's lascivious Scottish father, Sir Malcolm Reid.

Warner's Mrs. Bolton evokes an amazing aura of empathy for the ever-increasing gulf that separates Connie from Clifford as she literally takes over the invalid's life. And one of the play's comedic highlights features a tour de force explosion of lustful expletives from uninhibited Sir Malcolm as he actually applauds Mellors for making a real woman of his daughter.

``LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER''

(Contains nudity as well as graphic sexual references and situations.)

Where: The Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday; through Dec. 10.

Tickets: $20 to $23. Call [phone].

Our rating: Four stars