A Rose for Rose : Play, begun six years ago, plumbs the wit and wisdom of the Kennedy matriarch.

It would be easy to interpret the Los Angeles arrival of Elizabeth Garry’s play about the life of Rose Kennedy, “One Perfect Rose,” as a theater eulogy cashing in on the memory of the Kennedy family matriarch, who died Jan. 22 at 104.

It would also be wrong.

Actor and co-producer Mary E. Holt, whom Garry approached six years ago with the one-character play, has been struggling most of the time since to secure a full production. “We came very close last year,” Holt says, “which would have been lovely while Rose was still alive.”

Only now, in a staging co-directed by C. J. Schock and W. Morgan Sheppard at Two Roads Theatre opening Saturday, is “One Perfect Rose” finally getting a hearing.

“Actually, this is for all intents and purposes a world premiere,” Holt says, explaining that the only other appearance of “Rose” was a one-night Chicago performance with Garry in the title role.

The play’s illusion, Holt explains, is that we have encountered Rose on her Hyannis Port, Mass., estate. Instead of shooing us away, she’s in a chatty mood and asks us inside to tell her version of the Kennedy family saga. “This is about Rose,” Holt says, “as told by Rose.”

As Holt and Schock ready for a weekday rehearsal at Two Roads, the actor is still in her “civilian” clothes, and it’s difficult to imagine her as the grande dame of Hyannis Port. Holt retreats backstage, though, and minutes later emerges in a classy black suit, with coiffed hair and a little of that Kennedy magic dust floating around her.

While Holt does her transformation, Schock discusses the project--beginning with why the directors outnumber the cast.

“Yes, that seems sort of strange, doesn’t it?” she asks. “At first, I thought that I would be more available to direct in the early rehearsal phase, and then Morgan would take over in the later phase. But my schedule has changed, and I’m really following it through to the end. Morgan has been gracious enough to call himself ‘assistant director.’ . . .

Morgan is marvelous at bringing a fresh perspective when I feel I’ve listened to it for too long. He’s British, and sees Rose as a kind of American Queen Mother.”

Garry’s theatrical Rose guides us through her adventurous life, strewn with triumphs and tragedies. Her father, John (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald rose from poverty in Boston to become the city’s mayor. As a girl, Rose served as her father’s campaign companion, and this political education, plus a strict, sometimes harsh Catholic education, imprinted her for life. With husband Joseph, she raised a family of nine.

“She saw it as her family’s God-given destiny to serve the country,” says Holt, now in full Rose regalia.

In the play, Rose considers her role as a mother guiding her family through rough waters. “Rose talks about her mentally retarded daughter, Rosemary,” says Holt, “and instead of complaining about the burden of raising her, Rose resolves that this is a problem to be solved.”

Rose, says Holt, was “deeply aware of what would happen if the family saw her break under the burden” of tragedies including plane crashes, assassinations and scandal.

Holt says the play centers on “Rose’s own intimacies, and her very, very sly wit. That wit was a wonderful surprise to discover as an actor, and it was surely the secret to her long life.”

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WHERE AND WHEN What: “One Perfect Rose.”

Location: Two Roads Theatre, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City.

Hours: Opening at 8 p.m. Saturday. Regular performances 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. Sunday. Ends June 25.

Price: $12 to $15.

Call: (213) 660-8587.