STAGE REVIEW : ‘Cuckolds’ Plays Its Heart Out : The Alternative Repertory Theatre tackles the Commedia Dell’Arte with mixed success.

The fact that the Alternative Repertory Theatre has survived to inaugurate a fourth season should be cause for celebration. Like a drop of water in the desert, this small troupe has by its mere existence raised the level of theatrical expectations in Orange County.

When some troupes its size have folded--and much larger ones have faltered or trimmed their sails amid an atmosphere of cultural apathy and political antagonism--ART has shown the kind of staying power that speaks volumes for its pluck, determination and independence. It has not only weathered pitifully scant audiences and braved a fiscal crisis, but also has refused to lower its artistic ambitions.

And so last week, in a move not exactly calculated to draw huge crowds, ART began its 1990-91 season with a little-known play called “The Three Cuckolds,” Leon Katz’s 1986 adaptation of several Italian commedia dell’arte sketches from the 16th Century.

True to form--although disappointing--an opening night audience of fewer than two dozen filed into ART’s 61-seat storefront theater-in-the-round for this pageant of comic lewdness and venal sin.

The eight actors, each outfitted in evocative masks and colorful costumes, still managed to play their hearts out with all the gusto of a troupe entertaining thousands. Their roles, stock characters all, include a roguish Harlequin, lecherous and doddering husbands, shrewish and lascivious wives, and the devil himself.

Unfortunately, scintillating performances have never been ART’s great strength--for the obvious reason that the company can’t afford to pay professional actors--and this offering proved no exception. As a result, despite excellent technical design work, “Three Cuckolds” lacks the theatrical pandemonium that might have propelled it beyond the ordinary.

Although the production does get a central charge from Greg Izay, whose lively portrayal of the clown Arlecchino has a certain piquancy, it needs something more potent to sustain nearly 2 1/2 hours of talky plot convolutions.

What is most required perhaps, besides a cast with greater finesse, is a high-octane imagination to accelerate the pace. There is an attempt at this with Flaminia, a vixen played with a Deep-South accent by Louise Moore as a combination of Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche Dubois. But the portrayal is mannered and comes so thoroughly out of the blue that it is jarring. (It also goes unanswered by any amalgam of Rhett Butler and Stanley Kowalski among the male roles, which might have created some balance or context.)

In the meantime, there is no evidence that ART has taken to heart its own pre-opening statements about parallels between the commedia of “Three Cuckolds” and the low comedy of Charlie Chaplin or the Marx brothers or even, God help us, Bugs Bunny. A note in a newsletter handout draws attention to all of those folks, and the playbill, quoting the playwright, lays out the essentials. It indicates, for instance, that food, sex and money are the principal motives shared by low comedy everywhere across the centuries.

“The secret of commedia’s art,” Katz writes, “is in the head, the heart, the stomach and the behind. It’s in the common wisdom of the victim, the underdog, the put-upon, who know all the hurts, and love to see their familiar aches and pains in wild, in magical colors.” The show doesn’t live up to this secret, however. Nor was the lackluster performance on opening night helped by the forced laughter of several people in the audience who clearly were trying to give the cast a boost. All it did was heighten the awareness that the rest of us weren’t laughing.

Of all the players, Michael Gafney brings us closest to the common wisdom of the victim as Zanni, an old and ignorant dupe, with his nattering and his gravelly voice. Patrick Brien as Pantalone, an overweening husband, also engages us with moments of energetic stupidity.

Rounding out the company: Loretta Beaumont portrays Zanni’s virago wife, Franceschina; Jennifer Myers Johnson plays Cintia, another young harridan married to Coviello, the third idiot husband played by Phillip (Jake) Smith. Terry Gunkel doubles as the young lover Leandro and the devil.

‘THE THREE CUCKOLDS’

A production by the Alternative Repertory Theatre. Adapted by Leon Katz. Directed by Patricia L. Terry. With Greg Izay, Phillip (Jake) Smith, Louise Moore, Patrick Brien, Loretta Beaumont, Michael Gafney, Jennifer Myers Johnson and Terry Gunkel. Scenic and costume design by Karen J. Weller. Masks and makeup design by Gary Christensen. Mask coach B.J. Dodge. Lighting design by David C. Palmer. Sound design by Kathleen A. Bryson, who is also the producer. Choreography by Cyrus Parker-Jeanette. Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. through Nov. 17 at 1636 S. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Tickets: $10 to $12.50. Information: (714) 836-7929.