THEATER REVIEW : ‘The Way of the World’ Is a Mouthful for Cast

“The Way of the World” may be the prize of Restoration comedy, but it’s no cakewalk for actors. In fact, as the ambitious production that opened last weekend at the Powerhouse proves, it requires a command of both theatrical style and complex language. And if you can’t speak the speech, you can’t play the play.

A late-17th, early 18th-Century genre written for an audience of men and women of leisure, Restoration comedy is rife with love dalliances between pompous rakes, lecherous old dames, dull cuckolds and sundry other cads and fops who converse in flashy, epigrammatic speech.

In William Congreve’s “The Way of the World,” the lovers and poseurs who plot against one another are distinguished not by their ethics, but by how well they pull off their own personal style, whatever that may be.

Director Philip Littell shrewdly understands this comedy of manners as an amoral, rather than immoral, satire of society’s vanity. He keeps the action appropriately light but not too light, and the interactions tinged with double entendre.

The action unfolds on a striking abstract set (by Kip Marsh) dominated by rows of turquoise chairs and a central miniature house that reveals surprises throughout the play. It’s a flexible backdrop that suggests both the superficiality and the ambiguity of a world preoccupied with fashion and reputation.

Yet no matter how good you make it look, it’s how your actors handle the text that makes or breaks Restoration comedy. And that’s where Littell has a major problem--namely, most of his cast.

Fortunately, Littell does have a bona fide comic diva in Jacque Lynn Colton. An estimable actress who came on board as a replacement only after the earthquake, she’s nonetheless light-years more flamboyant, intelligent and articulate than anyone else onstage.

In fact, if Colton’s Lady Wishfort dominated the action throughout as she does in Act IV, the evening would be almost beyond reproach. Unfortunately though, that’s not the way of this world.

Kevin Duffy (Petulant) and David Quicksall (Witwoud), and to a lesser extent Paul Marius (Mr. Fainall), are also up to Congreve’s task and able to get the jokes across. But they stand out in a production replete with mumble mouths.

And there are other problems. The mostly modern costumes coordinated by Lisa Gold are so random and unindicative of character that they look as though the actors were simply told to bring something from home to wear. And, with the stage’s front four doors open to accommodate the design scheme, the Powerhouse gets very cold, so audience members too need to bring something warm from home to wear.

* “The Way of the World,” Powerhouse Theatre, 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica . Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends March 13. $12. (310) 477-2199. Running time: 3 hours, 20 minutes.