ACTOR HAS A DOUBLE CHALLENGE

When Charley Lang first appears in South Coast Repertory Theatre’s production of “Cloud 9,” his angular features are softened by a veneer of makeup, his hair is hidden under a curly, honey-colored wig and he flutters about in a flouncy dress like a butterfly searching for a perch.

By the second act, Lang has ditched the rouge, the ringlets and the gown for a leather jacket (black lapels turned up), worn jeans and an almost menacing attitude.

“Yeah, it’s a pretty amazing turnaround,” the 30-year-old actor conceded during an interview before a recent performance. “It can be pretty startling to some people, but it makes sense when you look at the entire play and what she’s trying to say.”

The playwright is Caryl Churchill, and what she is trying to say in the esoteric “Cloud 9” is debatable. But Lang, like most reviewers, agrees that it’s about sex: sexual politics, repression, role-playing and homosexuality.

“Cloud 9,” which runs through Oct. 26, is an oddly structured satire that begins at a British outpost in Africa during Victorian times. After a first act hinting of passionate high jinks (bisexual and homosexual joinings are intimated) in this archly conservative environment, the second act opens in London 25 years later. As a dramatic device, Churchill has asked the actors to play different characters in each act, some even switching sex. Early on, Lang plays Betty, the dutiful and coy wife of a proper English aristocrat, but in the second act he becomes Gerry, a promiscuous young man looking for dalliances in train stations and public parks.

Lang, a veteran of several Broadway and off-Broadway shows including Eugene O’Neill’s “Strange Interlude” with Glenda Jackson, admits that the role change can be confusing, even off-putting, but thinks it works within the play’s context. Churchill, he explained, uses men playing women and women playing men--Patti Johns, for example, plays a boy in the first act and a young lesbian in the second--to toy with our preconceptions of what is normal for males and females.

“She wants the audience to know that there’s no complete or typical man or woman,” Lang said. “I think she’s saying that there are elements of both in each of us. Of course, it is a very dramatic way to do it, but it gets the job done. She is forcing us to see things her way.”

He continued: “Caryl is asking a lot of the audience because she wants us to see things about sex, family and relationships differently than how we’ve been conditioned. She is intent on breaking that conditioning in the second act. I think it is frightening for us to deal with because there is safety and security in what is familiar.”

“Cloud 9’s” raw language and candid scenes were also defended by Lang, who feels they give the play an authentic, earthy quality. Still, he acknowledges that some people in the audience have been offended by the play’s uncompromising vision.

“I guess we’ve had a few people walk out, but just a few,” Lang said. “That’s kind of unfortunate because I think their reactions would go beyond that initial shock if they’d stuck around.”

Lang, who noted that this is the first time he has played a woman on stage, said he was eager to take the role for two reasons: He has long admired Churchill’s work (“Top Girls” and “Fen” are two of her better-known plays) and was intrigued by the role of Betty. Part of the attraction was preparing to play a female character, which, he thought, would give him a chance to connect with his feminine side.

The process was not as difficult as some might expect. Lang said the only struggle was allowing himself to set aside his more masculine mannerisms, which was accomplished, in part, by becoming more flirtatious with the production’s male actors. He also observed the gestures of girlfriends and sought their advice on how to better parade his femininity.

“I had to get rid of all that stuff about being the man I am; I thought of how women support the family and respond to men,” Lang explained. “It wasn’t troubling but exciting. When the dress arrived and the corset and wig, I was anxious to try them on. Betty was really coming into herself.”

The same might be said of Lang. After a successful career in New York--beside “Strange Interlude,” the wiry actor had major roles in “Da,” “Mass Appeal” and “Class Enemy”--Lang decided a few months ago to come to Los Angeles to pursue a fuller, more lucrative career. He’s not unfamiliar with Hollywood, having been in a handful of television movies, including the 1981 Emmy Award-winning “Kent State,” and feels he can combine serious theater with more television work.

“I have to admit that I’m out here for the money, among other things,” Lang said with a laugh. “But there’s a lot of good theater going on in Los Angeles, too. It’s a good place to be working.”

He now lives in Venice and spends his days visiting television studios and planning other drama projects. After “Cloud 9’s” run, Lang is scheduled to direct two one-act plays next month at the Ensemble Studio Theater in Los Angeles.

“Everything is working out just fine and there’s a lot to do. I miss New York in many ways, but not terribly. There are so many possibilities out here; L.A. is really beginning to feel like my home.”