MADE FOR BEDFORD MOLIERE PRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS TALENTS OF RENOWNED BRITISH ACTOR.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

As his artistic home in Stratford, Ontario, gears up for its 50th anniversary season, actor/director Brian Bedford is enjoying the California sunshine, firmly enmeshed in yet another ``Moliere year.''

Serving as both star and director, Bedford brings the ``Moliere Comedies'' - a double bill of Moliere one acts - to the Mark Taper Forum, beginning Thursday. Later this year, he'll star in yet another ``Tartuffe'' at the Roundabout Theater in New York, playing the nearly cuckolded husband Orgon. It's a role, he notes, that he has never played before. And within the Moliere canon, there aren't many hypocrites, misanthropes, suspicious husbands or would-be wife imprisoners that the Yorkshire-born Bedford hasn't sampled.

``I don't know what this says about me,'' says the genial actor, who turned 67 while ``The Moliere Comedies'' was in previews, ``but I like to play obsessive, neurotic, selnvolved, controlling people, because I find that funny. As did Moliere, of course, even though he was referring to a lot of his own qualities.''

``Shakespeare and Moliere,'' continues Bedford, ``are my two guys.''

And he's theirs. Says cast member Don Reilly: ``I imagine, probably nobody else in the English-speaking world knows Moliere as well as (Bedford) does, or has done as much.''

Over the course of a career that has spanned six decades, Bedford has played many of the major roles of classical theater, from Hamlet to Richard III to Macbeth. A five-time Tony nominee, he won the award for best dramatic actor in 1971 for his work in Moliere's ``The School for Wives.'' He was nominated for the ``Moliere Comedies'' in 1995 when the show played Broadway.

Always on stage

Film has beckoned less often than it did for, say, Peter O'Toole and Albert Finney, Bedford's classmates at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Bedford's film roles include supporting roles in ``Nixon'' and the TV miniseries ``Scarlett,'' as well as voicing the foxy title character in the 1973 Disney animated feature, ``Robin Hood.''

But chances are if you know Brian Bedford, you know him from the stage, be it Broadway, or Stratford, Ontario, where he's a company member with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. His one-man Shakespeare-themed show, ``The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet,'' has taken him around the world. Between the two Moliere engagements, Bedford will perform the show for a month during the Stratford Festival's 50th anniversary season.

``I think these days, a lot of people don't always honor the theater or carry on its traditions. Maybe they aren't such great craftspeople,'' says Katie MacNichol, who co-stars with Bedford in ``The Moliere Comedies.'' ``Brian really is one of them.''

And he'll go where the classics take him.

Bedford, who loves California, is an American citizen who divides his time between a cottage in Stratford and a farm in upstate New York. He says he knew from very early on that he wanted to enjoy a British stage actor's career while living in America. The Stratford Festival - an April- to-November extravaganza where Bedford acts and directs - has afforded him the perfect niche.

When not back east, Bedford performs throughout the country from the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to the Globe Theaters in San Diego to anywhere in between.

``As there's no national theater in this country, I think it's a good idea to spread yourself around,'' he says. ``It certainly is odd doing rhyming couplets in Los Angeles, but you know, there must be a tiny minority of people who want classical theater, who are glad that we're here.''

Plus fours

The Taper engagement will mark the fourth time Bedford has performed in ``The Moliere Comedies'' - consisting of ``The School for Husbands'' and ``The Imaginary Cuckold'' - following stints in Stratford, Broadway and Connecticut. The Taper stint is his first time directing the plays, and he's showing no signs of tiring of the roles.

In fact, he jumped at the chance to don the wigs again. A few years ago, at a birthday celebration for Bedford at the Sherman Oaks home of his longtime friend, actress Juliet Mills, Bedford found himself in a backyard conversation with Taper Artistic Director Gordon Davidson. Isn't it time you performed at the Taper, Davidson asked him. Yes, agreed Bedford.

Backyard bargain

``He said, 'Well, what do you want to do?' and I said ' ``The Moliere Comedies.'' ' This conversation took about one minute and lo and behold, here we are,'' said Bedford. ``And I am so grateful to Gordon and so admiring of him that he had the courage to do them because, you know, they cost a lot of money to do. Each costume costs a fortune.''

In ``The School for Husbands,'' Bedford plays Sganarelle, the aging distrustful guardian of a young ward he hopes to marry. In ``The Imaginary Cuckold,'' Bedford takes on a different character, also named Sganarelle, who, thanks to a series of comic sexual misunderstandings that would rival a ``Three's Company'' marathon, becomes convinced his wife is stepping out.

The translations of both plays are by poet Richard Wilbur and are dedicated to Bedford. The language is rhyming verse, but if the performers do their job correctly, an audience shouldn't feel like they're in the crosshairs of a poetry assault weapon.

``It's a joy to do this kind of text,'' says Bedford. ``It's tricky, but once you really get it under your belt, I imagine it's like a musician playing Mozart. 'Cuckold' is like a perfect little play. It seems to last exactly the right length of time and all of these misunderstandings and machinations and yet the audience stays with it.

`` 'School for Husbands' has more dimension to it. I really don't know which play I like better. I think they're both absolute gems.''

THE MOLIERE COMEDIES

Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

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

Tickets: $22 to $44. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) no caption (BRIAN BEDFORD)

(2) ``I don't know what this says about me, but I like to play obsessive, neurotic, selnvolved, controlling people, because I find that funny. As did Moliere, of course, even though he was referring to a lot of his own qualities.''

-Brian Bedford