Theater Reviews : Airy ‘Sleuth’ Exposed to the Elemental

Playwright Anthony Shaffer has openly wished that his hit mystery play, “Sleuth,” would be appreciated as a critique of the British fetishes for class warfare and games-playing rather than as the entertaining variation on Agatha Christie and revenge plays that everyone took it for when it appeared more than 20 years ago.

In Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s Theatre on the Green production at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center, it’s clear that Shaffer is not going to get his wish.

With a broad, gallivanting Robert Mandan as aristocratic mystery writer Andrew Wyke and a gradually impressive Randy Gianetti as Wyke’s opponent in love and war, Milo Tindle, this edition of “Sleuth” (complete with a preperformance dinner) isn’t going for anything more than a dinner-theater crowd can digest.

Still, Shaffer’s deeper purpose is there if you want to listen. Milo wants a gentleman’s agreement with Andrew that he, Milo, may have Tindle’s estranged wife for his own. They’re deeply in love, and, besides, Andrew has his own mistress.

But Andrew knows that Milo isn’t an aristocrat with the money to satisfy his wife’s expensive tastes. In fact, he considers Milo “a Wop . . . not one of us,” and an easy dupe in a game of mock-robbery.

Shaffer cleverly attaches Andrew’s class interest to his love of games; he’s a true, Wiltshire country eccentric who, Milo accurately observes, has replaced people and real life with ruses, hatched plots and dress-up routines. Naturally, it’s the working-class Milo, of poor Italian parents, who stands for today’s real England.

But “Sleuth” becomes a doubly disingenuous spectacle. Shaffer may nobly share Milo’s disgust of Andrew’s misanthropy-through-games, but Shaffer is the first to play games with his audience.

Moreover, the actors have to play a very keen game of distracting us from noticing the play’s own hypocrisy. It’s awfully hard to judge Andrew when we’re enjoying watching him put Milo through the ringer--and later, when Milo works his own sleuthing games.

Mandan sounds as if he looks upon this date as his chance to strut his stuff playing the overgrown boy Andrew has become. His resemblance to Lawrence Olivier (who worked wonders in the 1972 film version) is sometimes startling: the graying, suave chap in love with the cadence of his own voice.

As larger-than-life as he is, though, Mandan isn’t as broad as Olivier, who had gotten very showoffish at that late phase in his career. This Andrew is a tad more vulnerable in the hands of someone who isn’t an icon.

Milo’s ups and downs make him a hard nut to crack for an actor, and, at first, Gianetti just seems to be trying to get his Cockney accent right. He eventually goes much deeper, only momentarily sabotaged by Heather Stafford’s sloppy makeup.

You also have to wonder if the play itself isn’t being sabotaged by the Muckenthaler’s outdoor amphitheater setting for director James Luisi’s staging.

Steven Craig’s set has the right all-male mansion look, but “Sleuth” works best the more closed-in we feel--a very hard thing with miked actors in the starry Fullerton evening.

Ironically, there’s the Muckenthaler mansion next to the theater, and the perfect site for an environmental “Sleuth.” Andrew would cringe at the lost opportunity.

* “Sleuth,” Muckenthaler Cultural Center, 1201 W. Malvern Ave., Fullerton. Tuesday-Sunday, 8:15 p.m. (dinner at 7 p.m.; bring your own picnic Tuesdays). Ends July 30. $21-$30. (714) 879-1732. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Robert Mandan: Andrew Wyke

Randy Gianetti: Milo Tindle

Philip Farrar: Inspector Doppler

Harold Newman: Detective Sgt. Tarrant

Roger Purnell: Constable Higgs

A Fullerton Civic Light Opera/Theatre on the Green production of Anthony Shaffer’s play. Directed by James Luisi. Set and lights: Steven Craig. Costumes: Ambra Wakefield. Sound: Nelsonics.