STAGE REVIEW : USC Premieres ‘Les Divines’

Who would have expected two simultaneous stage productions to touch on the Eleanora Duse/Sarah Bernhardt rivalry? Yet here we are, with Lillian Garrett’s “The Ladies of the Camellias” continuing into its third month at the West End Playhouse and the world premiere of Swiss playwright Herbert Meier’s “Les Divines: Almost Like Gods,” at USC’s Bing Theatre.

The amazing thing about both shows is how little overlap there is in terms of information. Meier’s play covers the stormy affair of Duse and novelist/playwright Gabriele d’Annunzio, with Bernhardt playing a pivotal but background role, in the period from 1894 to 1915. Garrett’s play speculates on what could have happened in Paris in 1897 when Duse did the Bernhardt vehicle, “The Lady of the Camellias” in Bernhardt’s own theater. It’s whimsical yet political, like Shaw in a light mood.

Meier’s play reminds you of Luchino Visconti in an undisciplined mood. Meier was a playwright-in-residence at USC two years ago, which is partly why the play (translated from German by Gitta Honegger) is debuting far from home. For Meier, though, it makes sense: L.A. is a safe harbor for refining the text and remote from all those Swiss critics.

This isn’t a thrown-together workshop show, however. Director Robert W. Goldsby and light designer Toshiro Ogawa have done much fine work (LATC’s “Tartuffe”). The visual design by Ariel proves once again that some of the most interesting theater imagery is being made by non-theater artists. Robert MacDougall’s score is a piece of serious composing, fit to stand on its own.

It is also perhaps too serious for what we see on stage, which is competent actors (pros in the leads, students in the support) trying to navigate their way through an English but foreign-sounding script. This is Honegger’s problem, not Meier’s; Susan Dall’s Duse, or anyone else’s, would never be able to handle such lines as this comment on Bernhardt: “Why did I have to run into her tentacles? She has such tiny eyes!”

Meier’s language seems to have been partly inspired by Duse’s and D’Annunzio’s purple-prose correspondence. The florid tone sometimes reduces the drama to giddy nonsense, making it sound written rather than spoken.

Considering the assignment, Dall, Lillian D’Arc’s Bernhardt and Doug Kaback’s D’Annunzio make us believe even in scenes that are pure inventions. (Why, though, set an 1896 meeting with Thomas Edison in 1908?) History fiddling can be fun; look at E. L. Doctorow. Unlike Lillian Garrett’s show, however, there’s little room for fun here. At least the students seem to get a kick out of playing with pros.

At USC, Jefferson Boulevard and McClintock Avenue entrance, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets: $4; (213) 743-7111.