TWO MEN, ONE SOUTH AFRICA.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

ATHOL FUGARD really is the most cunning of miniaturists. Every time we peg him to be writing about a different dramatic chapter of his own autobiography, it turns out he's chronicling the history of his troubled homeland. The man is South Africa's unofficial biographer and tour guide.

Earlier works (``The Captain's Tiger,'' ``Valley Song'') have contained fictional versions of Fugard. With the 90-minute ``Exits and Entrances,'' Fugard has written himself as a young man into his own narrative. ``The Playwright,'' as he is called, celebrates a deep but often turbulent and frustrating friendship with the celebrated South African actor Andre Huguenet, a man who could teach a master class on self-torment. There may well be some wisdom to be gained by an idealistic - but never naive - young actor/playwright from a thespian past the prime of his career. Fugard clearly thinks there is. The play is the lesson.

Landing the world premiere of ``Exits and Entrances'' - of any Fugard play - is a substantial coup for Stephen Sachs and his 78-seat Fountain Theatre. Fugard never wrote epics, and as the size of his canvas shrinks, so do the demands of the house. Scenic designer David Potts makes do with a rolling wardrobe, a door and a small writing desk. Lighting designer Kathi O'Donohue shades the action with subtle layers. There shouldn't be a seat in the entire house from which you can't get a primo view of actors William Dennis Hurley and Morlan Higgins' faces. Which, in a play like this, is a plus.

Fugard, who no longer acts in his plays, might have played the Playwright in his youth. Chances are he would never have taken a stab at Huguenet. And after seeing Morlan Higgins in the role, I suspect many future actors may be scared off as well. This is a role-defining - maybe even a career-defining - performance. Higgins, last seen at the Fountain as the Arthur Miller stand-in in ``After the Fall,'' is unrecognizable from that earlier role. And he's utterly mesmerizing.

``Exits and Entrances'' also marks the first time a new Fugard play has been guided by a director other than the playwright. In Sachs, Fugard has found a more than capable general. The Fountain production is so thoughtful, so human and the interplay between Hunt and Higgins so fascinating and utterly watchable.

This is a spare play as well. A certain portion of ``Exits and Entrances' '' 90-minute, no-intermission running time is devoted to monologues and performances from some of Huguenet's celebrated roles: Oedipus, Hamlet and a doozy of a turn from a play called ``The Prisoner.''

The play opens in 1961 with the Playwright (Hurley) making a journal notation and noticing the obituary of an old friend, Huguenet. The notice provides few details of the death, but the Playwright muses, ``I think I know what happened.'' Then it's a flashback to five years earlier and a Cape Town theater when the Playwright played a shepherd to Huguenet's Oedipus and also served as the great man's dresser.

The two men share an admiration that borders on love. (Huguenet is gay, the Playwright is not). The Playwright is shopping his script for what will become ``The Blood Knot.'' Huguenet doesn't want his friend's talent ``squandered'' writing plays about their disenfranchised homeland. The Playwright counters that such a subject - and such characters - are precisely what his topic should be. The disagreement nearly splinters the friendship. But not quite.

Both men - one famous, the other at the start of his career - are trying to locate their place in the world and struggling mightily in the attempt.

Higgins, who has bulked up for the role, keeps Huguenet's bluster to a minimum. The character may be accustomed to being worshipped, but he has also seen failure and knows that both conditions require dignity. When we watch the two characters together, it's clear they're not playing roles for each other. Sharing the stage with a powder keg like Higgins/Huguenet can't be an easy proposition, but Hunt is quietly powerful as well. Credit veteran acting coach Larry Moss for his work in making sure that both actors have mastered the musical Afrikaner accent.

And credit Athol Fugard for bringing his new works to L.A. and to a theater that can make it sing.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

EXITS AND ENTRANCES - Three and one half stars

Where: Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; through July 25.

Tickets: $25. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: The soul of South Africa laid bare through an artistic friendship.

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Photo:

William Dennis Hurley, left, and Morlan Higgins star in the world premiere of Athol Fugard's ``Exits and Entrances'' at the Fountain Theatre.