THEATER REVIEW : Satire ‘Cloud Nine’ Is Sowing More Confusion Than Laughter : While the Plaza Players’ production has its moments, they’re brief and scattered.

Michael Maynez, adventurous artistic director of the Plaza Players, has really reached for the unusual this time. Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud Nine” is a political satire (or so we’re told) with sexual overtones. But it is more confusing than revelatory.

While the show has its moments, to these ears they’re brief and scattered. Contrasted with “Cloud Nine,” Maynez’s recent production of “M. Butterfly” looks as safe as “The Sound of Music.”

Rex Reed is quoted in the play’s promotional literature as having liked it (“I really don’t know when I’ve had more fun . . . “), and many members of Saturday’s opening night audience were tittering. Of course, if everybody appreciated the same things, then critics would be out of work.

The first act takes place in Africa, in the midst of Victorian colonization. Clive, a local bureaucrat, lives with his wife, their son and infant daughter, the children’s nanny, his wife’s mother, and a native houseboy.

Into this comes Uncle Harry, an explorer. Harry has designs on Clive’s wife, Betty; latent homosexual son Edward has a crush on Harry; Joshua, the houseboy, isn’t at all latent and holds his employers in contempt, and Ellen, the nanny, lusts after Betty.

Clive is having an affair with Mrs. Saunders, a neighbor. If all this isn’t complicated enough, Churchill calls for Edward and Uncle Harry to be played by women. (He also calls for Betty to be played by a man, which, here, he isn’t.) Daughter Victoria is a rag doll, and whatever the actor who plays Joshua is, he isn’t African.

Act Two finds some of the same characters in London, some time later. Here’s where it gets very confusing (the more unkind might say “stupid”): The act is set in the present, but to everybody on stage, the program tells us, it’s only 25 years later. Thus, Edward and Victoria are now young adults. The man who played Clive now plays Edward, the woman who played Edward now plays Victoria. And Betty is only somewhat noticeably older.

Clive, Ellen, Mrs. Saunders, Uncle Harry and Joshua are gone, as is Harry’s dotty mother-in-law. New characters include Lin, Victoria’s girlfriend; and Gerry, Edward’s boyfriend. Lin is played by the woman who played Ellen and Mrs. Saunders; Gerry by the woman who played Uncle Harry.

All of this is evidently supposed to reflect the disintegration of the British Empire. So is the recent film “Howards End,” which is comprehensible--and, some might say, funnier.

Certainly, “Howards End” is acted better, though to be fair to Maynez’s daring troupe, Elsa Lanchester, Vivien Leigh and Sirs Ralph Richardson, Laurence Olivier and Cedric Hardwicke might not have been able to improve their performance of Churchill’s script.

A bit of the sex is fairly graphic, with language to match--this isn’t a show to bring your parents to.

Some of these actors deserve better on the basis of present evidence: Tracy Maron-Anthony, Virginia Huse and Brenda Gaynor give the roles of Betty, Edward/Victoria and Harry/Gerry more than their due. Robert Reilly plays Clive and the older Edward; Louciel Church is Ellen, Mrs. Saunders and Lin; Chris Dumont is Joshua and his second-act counterpart, Martin, and Lucile Ferrie plays Clive’s mother-in-law.

Go ahead, trust Rex Reed. But remember, you were warned!

Details

* WHAT: “Cloud Nine”

* WHEN: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., through Dec. 18.

* WHERE: Plaza Players Theater, 34 N. Palm St. (in the Livery Arts Center), Ventura.

* COST: $7 Wednesdays, $9 Fridays and $10 Saturdays

* FYI: Includes sexual situations and strong language. For reservations or further information, call 643-9460