Smooth ‘Genet’ Is Funny but Strident

Insouciant? Yes. Funny? Frequently. French? But of course.

No, we’re not talking about Maurice Chevalier, although solo performer Arthur Hanket’s strutting sauciness sometimes seems right out of an old music hall routine. On the contrary, Hanket’s “Genet: The Language of the Wall” is about the controversial criminal, playwright, poet, novelist and homosexual Jean Genet--as you’ve never seen him before.

Smoothly staged at Actors’ Gang by co-directors Steven Rankin and Charles Otte, the piece intertwines Hanket’s original narration with selections from Genet’s own writings.

The action is set in a French prison in 1948, where Genet, who is serving a life term, receives a letter of pardon from the president of France. The prospect of such unexpected freedom both elates and dismays this proudly incorrigible thief, for whom prison has provided the only stability he has ever known.

Hanket’s brooding but often keenly comic characterization leavens Genet’s resolute degeneracy--but whether it accurately mirrors his subject is debatable. In fact, Hanket’s compellingly naturalistic performance would be a tour de force were it not for his infrequent but distracting slips into high-decibel stridency.

* “Genet: The Language of the Wall,” Actors’ Gang, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 30. $10. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.