STAGE REVIEW : Entering the Dark World of ‘Ivona’

The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, which in its 23-year history has made it something of a specialty to bring us obscure playwrights, especially Polish ones, is presenting Witold Gombrowicz’s first and profoundly characteristic play, “Ivona, Princess of Burgundia.”

In the United States, few people have heard of Gombrowicz. This dark magician of the stage, who was born in Poland but spent World War II stranded in a bank job in Argentina, eventually settling in the South of France, saw the world as a place of unrelenting malice and hypocrisy.

His plays--he also wrote novels--are deconstructions of man’s innate divinity poisoned by his infinite capacity for evil. Gombrowicz’s world is a more formal vision of the insane asylum of “Marat/Sade,” a lurid Tower of Babel in which destructive people endlessly talk sheer nonsense. And with the exception of his powerful anti-war opus “Operette,” in which The Truth emerges triumphant as an incandescent, naked young woman, they come to no good end.

“Ivona,” written in 1935, is a transparent allegory in which a homely young commoner is tormented, taunted and eventually killed by a royal court in which her antisocial gracelessness becomes an unbearable rebuke to its frivolous cruelties.

On a self-imposed dare, handsome Prince Philip (Paul Mercier) decides to marry this ugly duckling who holds a curious fascination for him. His parents, King Ignatius (Jeremy Lawrence) and Queen Margaret (Jacque Lynn Colton), are aghast. Their chamberlain (Alan Abelew) advises calm. Acceptance, he declares, is the best way for the prince to recover his senses. But it’s not easy. The court is full of titters. Phony efforts to be cordial are greeted with a stony silence from clear-eyed, unflinching Ivona (Beth Hogan).

The result is unnerving. The nattering courtiers make fun of her. The king and queen are increasingly uneasy in her presence. They’re not amused when their own guilts begin to surface. Ivona stands as a mute, inescapable conscience in their midst. Even the prince cannot withstand the silent reproof she comes to represent. Poor Ivona has fallen in love with him, and when he finds he cannot return the love, he decides she has to be sacrificed.

These are seething, Grand Guignol -esque characters, self-parodies from hell and Hieronymus Bosch tainted with an anguishing absurdity and a sneering sense of the ridiculous. Gombrowicz’s non-naturalism falls between Beckett and Ionesco, a comparison he is said to have disliked. But like them, he despaired of all human endeavor.

Stefan Kruck, a pseudonym for Odyssey Artistic Director Ron Sossi, who took over from Florinel Fatulescu, is credited with staging this “Ivona.” Artistic differences were cited for the rift and may account for the somewhat polarized production. American actors have a different sensibility when it comes to performing these rigorous, wildly exaggerated European grotesqueries, and the company does not escape unscathed.

Despite these actors’ rich and proven talents, they largely remain outside the play looking in.

Elizabeth Holmes is suitably sophisticated as the courtier Isobel, who has designs on the prince, and Bruce Bierman makes a persuasive case for Innocent, an unappealing fellow who thinks he may escape rejection with the unresponsive Ivona.

Lawrence comes closest to striking the right cacophonous chord as the unpalatable Ignatius, a cowering, murderous lech. But Mercier’s sober prince and Colton’s giddy queen are apple-pie American.

Hogan as Ivona is the mystery. A splendid actress, she seems wrong for the part at first, but builds to such a pitch with such inner stillness and steadfastness that, like the surrounding court, we are ultimately enthralled.

Without revealing too much, it helps that twice, including at the play’s shattering climax, her unwavering performance is supported by the wrenching voices of the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir.

Helpful too in setting the fantastical tone are Angela Calin’s fanciful objets trouves costumes and Robert W. Zentis’ cartoony furnishings, set against walls and floor of confetti gone berserk.

French playwright Jean Anouilh picked up on a similar theme of triumphant irrationality in the eye of the human storm with his play “Ardele.” In it, two hunchbacks who have fallen in love and wish to marry are destroyed by the adamant opposition of their rotten and indignant families. As in “Ivona,” it is the evil of self-righteousness drawing to its most horrifying and inexorable conclusion.

“Ivona, Princess of Burgundia,” Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Sept. 13 and 27, 3 p.m. only. Ends Sept. 27. $17.50-$21.50; (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours , 5 minutes.