UNEVEN `CHEATS OF SCAPIN' FALLS FAR SHORT.

Byline: Julio Martinez Special to the Daily News

The innovative Circus Theatricals, under the leadership of actor-director Jack Stehlin, has moved its operations from Hollywood's Hudson Guild Theatre to Ron Sossi's West Los Angeles-based Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. The first Theatricals-Odyssey co-production is a surprisingly low-keyed, ineffectual modern-dress adaptation of Moliere's 17th-century commedia dell'arte-inspired farce, ``The Cheats of Scapin.'' Stehlin, who also directs, gives a droll but understated performance in the title role that fails to ignite the inherent comical elements of the play, which has been adapted by Stehlin and co-producer Jeannine Welles. The work is undermined further by an uneven ensemble that never achieves a fluid rapport.

Moliere (1622-1673), the pen name of French actor-playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, established his reputation in the court of Louis XIV with such scathing social satires as ``Tartuffe,'' ``The Misanthrope'' and ``The Miser.'' ``The Sins of Scapin'' is one of a series of lighter Moliere plays that pay homage to the rousing, physical comedy style made popular in Italy. The work is populated with a menagerie of stock commedia characters who are personifications of the common flaws and weaknesses to be found in everyday society.

Scapin (Stehlin) is the perennially scheming servant who constantly is outwitting the miserly upper-class merchants, Geronte (Matt Gottlieb) and Argante (Roald A. Martinsen), on behalf of their foolish but passionately lovelorn respective sons, Octavio (Damon Seawell) and Leandro (Sean Patrick Thomas). Enlisting the aid of dimwitted but willing fellow servant Sylvestro (Tom McCleister), Scapin constantly has to sidestep self-generated disasters, but eventually separates the merchants from their gold while uniting Octavio with the supposedly poor but beautiful Hyacinthe (Kimberly Karen Johnson) and Leandro with the mysterious gypsy girl, Zerbinetta (Kathleen Dunn).

Stehlin exudes more the persona of a sarcastic, in control ``wise guy'' than the over-confident clown who has to work his way out of the traps created by his own foolish schemes. This constant under-playing proves a disservice to such potentially hilarious commedia shtick as Scapin's unwitting fueling of young Leandro's rage with a series of ill-advised confessions and the tried-and-true slapstick pummeling of the sack-enclosed Geronte by Scapin, who pretends to play both friend and foe to the unseeing merchant.

The rest of the ensemble fails to transcend Stehlin's performance or pedestrian staging. Only Gottlieb's Geronte achieves a sense of the vain but comical money-grasping foil who is not quite sure whether he would rather keep his gold or his son.

The scenic design of J. Gregor Veneklasen proves more inhibiting than serviceable. However, the sound design of Tim Joy, especially his use of the zesty ``Cuando, Cuando, Cuando,'' creates the perfect setting for the comedy that isn't there.

The Facts

What: ``The Cheats of Scapin.''

Where: Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles.

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays; through Oct. 3.

Tickets: $18.50 to $25.

Our rating: Two stars.

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Photo

PHOTO Jack Stehlin directs and stars in ``The Cheats of Scapin.''