THEATER REVIEW : Peter Sellars’ ‘Persians’: Muddled East vs. West : Gulf War is the focus in this adaptation of a Greek classic, but it’s a misfired exercise in misplaced activism.

Whatever else Peter Sellars may not be, he is loyal: To his artists, his ideas, his politics. He is less loyal to playwrights, especially dead ones.

Take the American premiere of “The Persians,” a modern adaptation of the play by Aeschylus that opened Thursday at the Mark Taper Forum. Two of its actors were in Sellars’ production of Sophocles’ “Ajax,” seen at the La Jolla Playhouse in 1986. On the “Ajax” team were James F. Ingalls (lights), Dunya Ramicova (costumes) and Bruce Odland (sound), all of whom have also designed “The Persians.”

The adapted text for “Ajax” was the work of Robert Auletta who--you guessed it--has adapted “The Persians.” Both plays, situated in a limbo between the ancient and modern worlds, are indictments of war and ugly Americans. But “Ajax” was cohesive and theatrically inventive, if politically blatant. “The Persians” is just blatant.

It far outstrips “Ajax” in its dogged pursuit of American mea culpa . Sellars’ heavy-handed conceit is to force an analogy between the ancient Greeks’ devastation of the invading Persian armies led by the arrogant Xerxes (John Ortiz), and the devastation of Iraq by guess-who during the Gulf War.

Never mind that Saddam Hussein is a reckless political exploiter in his own might, that it is dangerous to make an ancient classic fit a modern event and that dumping on America is an antiquated pastime. The analogy doesn’t work. Hardly anyone today would point to the Gulf War as a golden American moment, and other nations have since shown themselves capable of infinitely more cynical and heinous crimes.

Not only is Sellars’ self-flagellation misplaced, it is stuck in a production that borrows from too many styles that never come together--from intimations of Kathakali and Kabuki in the movement of Martinus Miroto to the beautiful oud music composed and performed by Hamza El Din.

Even if one bought it, Sellars’ argument is draped in some of the most ungainly and overblown rhetoric to hit the stage in some time. References to “the stability of the region,” Rambo and the Terminator are remarkably flat, while speeches on the effects of cluster bombs and high-explosive anti-tank missiles have all the magic of military debriefings.

The actors cannot be faulted.

They, like the troops in the Gulf, are merely following orders. It is not Cordelia Gonzalez’s fault if the shadow of the microphone into which she pours some very long speeches as the queen mother, Atossa, completely covers her face. And don’t blame Ben Halley Jr. or Joseph Haj--the chorus--if their overlapping delivery of the same words makes them so hard to follow.

Sellars made them do it. One suspects he also dictated Ingalls’ murky and treacherous lighting scheme, with actors hand-carrying equipment and low-lying spots. People sitting on the sides Thursday were shielding their faces with their programs to avoid being blinded. This is not the way to grab an audience.

Howie Seago, the deaf actor who was such a compelling Ajax is impressive as the ghost of Darius, returned from the dead to reflect on the disasters wrought by his arrogant son Xerxes. He delivers his speeches in sign language backed by a verbal translation from the chorus, but surely it was not Aeschylus’ intent to blame Xerxes’ behavior, as suggested here, on his dad’s bad parenting.

These bits of trivializing nonsense, Oedipal implications and a conclusion as illogical as it is misbegotten, make this “Persians” a smorgasbord of disparate styles in search of cohesion.

The sudden, turbo-charged entrance and sheer bad-boy presence of John Ortiz as the much-talked-about Xerxes, wakes the production up. But only momentarily. Ortiz, who has enough charisma to fill a movie screen and plays the role like a battlefield Michael Jackson, is given the stage then left rudderless to rant like a spoiled child having a tantrum and finally to sink in non sequiturs.

“The Persians” was first presented this year at the Salzburg and Edinburgh festivals and is headed for the Bobigny Festival in Paris. One wishes it well among the Europeans. But from an American perspective, it’s a misfired exercise in misplaced activism.

When “Ajax” opened at La Jolla, Dan Sullivan, then-Times’ theater critic, stated that the as-yet-unanswered question about Sellars was whether he was just playing theater games or whether he meant it. The conclusion at the time was that he meant it. Seven years later, one is not so sure.

* “The Persians,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 24. $28-$35; (213) 365-350, (714) 740-2000, TDD (213) 680-4017. Running time: 2 hours , 5 minutes.

Ben Halley Jr., Joseph Haj, Martinus Miroto: Chorus

Cordelia Gonzalez Atossa,: Queen of Persia

Howie Seago: Ghost of Darius, former King of Persia

John Ortiz: Xerxes, their son

The play by Aeschylus in a modern adaptation by Robert Auletta, with music composed and performed by Hamza El Din. Producer Diane Malecki. Director Peter Sellars. Assistant director Fred Frumberg. Lights James F. Ingalls. Costumes Dunya Ramicova. Sound Bruce Odland, Sam Auinger. Additional music Ben Halley Jr. Production stage manager Michele Steckler. Stage manager Elizabeth Burgess.