THEATER REVIEW : ‘Merlin’: Futuristic Retelling of Legends

Keeping track of the entire Arthurian saga--transposed into a post-apocalyptic future--is the daunting challenge awaiting audiences in “Merlin: The Onset & the Aftermath,” at the Lankershim Arts Center.

The Road Company Theatre’s wildly ambitious two-part staging applies traditional performance, dance and song to Arthurian scholar Tankred Dorst’s cautionary reworking of familiar and lesser known Round Table myths, filtered through contemporary philosophical issues. Short on resources but long on ingenuity and sustained energy, “Merlin” proves inspired, engaging, exasperating and bewildering in equal measure.

Set 500 years after a present-day holocaust, Part One, “The Onset,” depicts the re-emergence of civil law out of barbarism with the founding of a new society by another King Arthur (Lance Guest), a good-hearted but not overly thoughtful monarch who relies--perhaps too much--on the counsel of the wizard Merlin (Carl J. Johnson). Part Two, “The Aftermath,” follows Arthur’s efforts to hold his new order together through the ill-fated Grail quest and the treachery of his evil son Mordred (ultra-campy Christopher Faville).

Aside from its ominous implications about the cyclical nature of history, the futuristic setting contributes little more than humorous anachronisms and design conceits--knights wearing football helmets and shoulder pads in place of armor, costumes ranging from army camouflage to Indian deerskins. It looks like “Camelot” starring The Village People.

But despite frequent comic interludes, “Merlin” has serious intentions. Dorst and collaborator Ursula Ehler drew heavily from the grittier, less romanticized Germanic versions of the King Arthur stories--there’s a generous amount of foolishness in the grand passion between Sir Lancelot (Ken Sawyer) and Guinevere (Taylor Gilbert). Framing the saga in irony, they establish the morally ambiguous Merlin as instigator and architect of Arthur’s utopian society.

Sired by the devil and a human mother, Merlin’s own divided nature affects his intervention in Arthur’s court. He supplies the egalitarian ideal embodied in the Round Table, but also delivers tragically misleading prophesies.

In Merlin’s intermittent debates with his father (W. Jack Savage) lie some of the play’s most profound innovations--Merlin’s admission that despite his professed desire to do good, he finds the evil characters more interesting, or his doubts about the moral consequences of the Holy Grail quest he’s inflicted on these knights like a lab experiment.

Beneath this sweeping theological umbrella unfolds a meticulously thorough tour of the Arthurian cycle, but the individual myths lose a good deal of their unique archetypal resonance in this crowded company. Audiences unfamiliar with the stories of Perceval (Jason Williams), Sir Gawain (Theodore Stevens) and Sir Galahad (Paul Hagerty) may find themselves scrambling for Cliffs Notes.

Director Brad Hills sustains interest with notably lively pacing, and the 35-member cast delivers generally strong performances. But focus is intermittent as this sprawling, six-hour marathon tries to both retell and comment on the entire Arthurian cycle.

* “ Merlin: The Onset & The Aftermath, “ Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Part One: Fridays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m., running time: 3 hours, 20 minutes; Part Two: Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m., running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes. Ends Oct. 8. $15 each part , $20 for both. (818) 761-8838.