THEATER REVIEW : ‘Merlin,’ Minus the Magic : German playwrights’ lengthy take on Arthurian tales at Cal State Long Beach makes Monty Python seem like serious theater.

German playwright Tankred Dorst’s epic about the Knights of the Round Table has been seeking an American premiere for 15 years.

Alas, “Merlin” has finally found a Camelot in California Repertory Company, thanks to director Ronald Allan-Lindblom and the Goethe Institut. During its mystifying six hours, “Merlin” casts a smell of disenchantment over Cal State Long Beach’s Studio Theatre that pungently demonstrates why other American theaters avoided it like the Black Death.

Call it “Merlin the Merciless.”

Meet the Puppets of the Square Table--pretentious, preposterous and pathetic. Dorst and co-author Ursula Ehler’s self-indulgent Clicheland makes Lerner and Loewe’s musical “Camelot” seem like the cutting edge of post-modernism. By comparison, “Merlin” magically transforms “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” into serious art.

Comparisons, however, are odious and can’t do justice to “Merlin.”

Besides, Southern Californians should be grateful. The original version ran 9 1/2 hours at the Dusseldorf Schauspielhaus. The Cal Rep interpretation only stretches audiences over its medieval rack for six hours, and can be endured in two parts over two nights, or in a single Saturday marathon.

Evidently, Allan-Lindblom approached the 229-page script and its 265 roles with a child’s innocence. Dorst’s original title, “Merlin oder Das wuste Land” (Merlin; or, the Wasteland), implying that this must contain symbols from the Wagner school of Sturm und Drang. But what we see at Cal Rep is a bunch of boys playing knights, with occasional nods to contemporary theater. None of the provocative history lessons in the works of Dorst’s contemporaries Heiner Muller or Peter Handke are in evidence.

Rather than spectacle, Allan-Lindblom chose storybook minimalism. A metal scaffolding serves as the various castles. Lots of strobes and fog and music, but no knights in armor galloping on imaginary steeds, as in Ariane Mnouchkine’s inventive Shakespearean histories for the Olympic Arts Festival.

These knights wear black leather jackets as armor and sunglasses as helmets. But instead of behaving like a contemporary urban gang, the object of their obsession remains that elusive Holy Grail. Go figure.

An unseen storyteller narrates via loudspeakers, providing intrusive, irrelevant commentary, such as: “Merlin wrung his hands and groaned. . . . “

Merlin is potentially a fascinating guide for audiences, especially as realized by shaven-headed, intense Richard P. Gang, but he is gradually exiled offstage.

Born of a union between Satan and Woman (we witness the absurd birth, staged in the pit), Merlin defies his Dad’s Faustian temptations. So our magician embarks on a Mission Impossible: Make humanity grow up.

*

But there’s a problem: You gotta have a round table. Our sorcerer’s apprentice becomes a kid named Arthur (an indefatigable Blake Steury). “This table has to be a representation of the world,” the kid-King explains to a carpenter, “and it must seat over a hundred knights. No corners. No inferior seats.” Alas, the carpenter can’t deliver.

So Arthur marries a woman named Guinevere (Kimberly Seder as Valley Girl Queen). She accuses the King of wanting her only for her large round table. Guinevere stomps her foot and shouts, “I am not frigid! Exceptional people have exceptional feelings!”

Meanwhile, down by the queen’s compost heap next to the moat (I’m not joking) pines a lovesick knight named Sir Lancelot (Armando Jose Duran, ridiculous in tight black jeans). What’s a Queen gonna do?

The kicks in Part II come from watching Guinevere redecorate her new digs at Sir Lancelot’s castle. Domestic bliss dissolves into acrimony when those petulant knights want revenge.

“You come down and fight,” a knight shouts at the light booth. Slow-motion sword fights proliferate, resembling Super Mario’s struggles in a kid-vid dungeon. Satan triumphs, Merlin’s bummed, and as for the audience caught in Cal Rep’s headlights?

Prominently displayed in the theater’s lobby are warning signs: “THERE WILL BE NO LATE SEATING AFTER 8:15.” Want this reviewer’s advice? Arrive at 8:16.

* “Merlin,” Cal State Long Beach Little Theatre, 7th Street and West Campus Drive, Long Beach. Regular schedule (with Parts I and II on alternating evenings and both parts presented on Saturday): Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 p.m. $15 (for each part); $25 (for both parts). Ends May 14. (310) 985-7000. Running time: 6 hours. Richard P. Gang: Merlin

Blake Steury: King Arthur

Kimberly Seder: Guinevere

Armando Jose Duran: Sir Lancelot

Jamieson K. Price: Mordred

Pete Regan: Percevil

Gena Acosta: Jeschute

Sima Gupta: Dagobert

Penelope Miller: Morgan le Fey

A California Repertory Company production of Tankred Dorst and Ursula Ehler’s play. Directed by Ronald Allan-Lindblom. Costumes: Nancy Jo Smith. Designer: Lisa Hashimoto. Choreographer: Holly Harbringer. Sound: Mark Abel & Justus Matthews. Lights: Norma Garza. Music: Justus Matthews & Michael Kocob.