Stiffness Sets In Before the ‘Postmortem’ : Theater review: Actors try but find little life in their characters, which are written without subtext or motivation.

Playwright Ken Ludwig (best known for the popular comedy “Lend Me a Tenor”) presents a special problem to actors and directors: His plays are plot- rather than character-driven, which means the performers get fewer guidelines as to the motivation and subtext that puts drama into a drama.

Ludwig’s “Postmortem,” at the Cypress Civic Theatre through Dec. 9, is no exception, and director Pattric Walker hasn’t been able to leap the hurdle.

The play takes a real person and involves him in fictitious events. William Gillette was one of the top actors in England and America for many decades. Like many actors of his time, however, he is remembered most for one role: He co-wrote a dramatic adaptation of “Sherlock Holmes” with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and toured in the title role for a sizable chunk of his career. “Postmortem” takes place in 1922 at the amazing castle Gillette built in East Haddam, Conn.

Gillette has invited his current “Holmes” cast to the castle for a weekend that is to culminate with a party in honor of Sarah Bernhardt. There’s an extra guest, the former roommate of Gillette’s late girlfriend Maude. Maude has been dead for a year, and the ex-roommate, who has become a medium, is to have a seance to prove Gillette’s theory that Maude was actually murdered. Stand under a doorway, because the play falls apart about here.

As the ex-roommate, Shannon Deffenbaugh almost rises above the material, especially in her effective trance during the seance. She is the only cast member who has found much of a character behind the author’s words. Tony Garrett is very good as the too-effusive prime red herring, the Gillette company’s juvenile, but he apparently can’t resist delivering many of his lines offhandedly while staring into space over the audience’s heads.

Playing Gillette would daunt most actors, and Steve Keeley doesn’t give much reason to wonder why. He has a good sense of semi-austere reserve and a self-possessed air that might indicate an actor of the old school, but he never manages the grandeur of persona that marked players of Gillette’s ilk.

Paula Lindemuth has some good moments as May Dison. But Annette Bravo as Gillette’s sister and Richard June as her husband don’t fare well with the empty writing. Nor does Leslie Allen as Gillette’s aunt, mugging and reacting illogically to the strange events.

*

“Postmortem,” Cypress Civic Theatre, 5172 Orange Ave., Cypress. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 9. $8. (714) 229-6796. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes. Steve Keeley William Gillette

Tony Garrett: Bobby Carlyle

Shannon Deffenbaugh: Louise Parradine

Paula Lindemuth: May Dison

Annette Bravo: Marion Barrett

Richard June: Leo Barrett

Leslie Allen: Lilly Warner

LeSeek Yetev: Macready

A Cypress Civic Theatre Guild production of a mystery-drama by Ken Ludwig, produced by Al Weinberg, directed by Pattric Walker. Assistant producer: John Phinney. Scenic design: Walker, Celese Snyder. Lighting/sound design: Israel Pugh. Stage manager: Debbie Sturt.