SECOND MOVEMENT PERFORMING IS IN THE BLOOD OF JAMES THIERREE, WHO RETURNS TO L.A. WITH HIS 'JUNEBUG SYMPHONY'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

INTRODUCING their animal-less, two person ``Invisible Circus'' (``Le Cirque Invisible'') to West Coast audiences nine years ago, husband and wife performers Jean Baptiste Thierree and Victoria Chaplin wrote, ``We can hope that 'The Invisible Circus' is an entertainment - a handful of images - of brief dreams - of lightness and darkness. American audiences ... are spontaneous - easygoing - free of all things that have to do with childhood and that are the keys to fantasy.''

Make way for the next generation of circus/theatrical fantasy.

James Thierree, the son of Jean Baptiste and Victoria - and Charlie Chaplin's grandson - was part of that show, and he was part of this new breed of circus legacy. ``The Invisible Circus'' continues to tour, but now without the younger Thierree, who has formed his own canvas of dream and fantasy. ``The Junebug Symphony'' (``Le Compagnie du Hanneton''), which Thierree wrote, directs and performs in, plays a six-performance engagement this week at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Now he's staging his own dreams.

``I love stories, tales, journeys, but I also love contrasts, incertitude, paradoxes, enigmas,'' writes Thierree in the program notes for ``Junebug,'' which had a nearly sold-out five show run in October 2002. ``The Junebug Symphony came to me as a pile of images and desires one can't keep in the attic anymore.''

Similar impulses, same gene pool.

``It's true,'' says Victoria Chaplin, who is credited as the costume designer for ``The Junebug Symphony.'' ``Both James and his sister, Aurelia, worked with us since they were tiny. I guess they sort of took what they could take and made their own little recipes.''

Says Thierree, `` 'The Junebug' and whatever I do is totally bathed in what I received through the tours and following my parents. It's all very natural. Once I stopped touring with them, I tried to be an actor and not do so much all the side things. I was pretty unhappy. Doing 'The Junebug' was my acknowledgment that I really wanted to dwell in the language that belongs to a number of things.''

Thierree, whose film acting debut was in Peter Greenway's ``Prospero's Books,'' is due to appear in the movie ``Bye Bye Blackbird'' opposite Derek Jacobi this year.

But since there's little call for roller blading violinists on the silver screen, Thierree flexes his live performance/circus muscles on the road.

``When you're a little boy, enjoying acrobatics, you start to learn how to flip and it just feels great,'' he says. ``The whole family cocoon was open ground for learning all these things.

``We are not the best acrobats, we're not competing with best acts of Cirque du Soleil. It's something else we're trying to touch.''

In ``The Junebug Symphony,'' a young man (Thierree) falls asleep and encounters a dreamscape where his limbs disappear, where books burst into flame and where fantastical creatures emerge. Thierree roller skates while playing a violin, portraits come alive and another performer engages in a dance with an armchair. In dreams, clearly, anything is possible.

``It's a family show, but it's not a kids show,'' says UCLA Live Director David Sefton, who has now programmed ``The Junebug Symphony'' twice. ``James is living in the land of kind of circusy stuff, but it's still really smart. You feel like you've been engaged on a lot of different levels.''

Thierree's follow-up show, ``Night Watch of the Abyss,'' is a darker counterpart to the ``Junebug Symphony,'' according to its creator. Sefton hopers to book it for UCLA Live's 2005-06 season.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

THE JUNEBUG SYMPHONY

Where: Freud Playhouse, UCLA.

When: 8 p.m. today to Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; through Sunday.

Tickets: $30 to $40. Call [phone].

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Dreams take flight in ``The Junebug Symphony,'' a show of spectacle, movement and circus-like acrobatics playing at UCLA.