Swashbuckling ‘Rover’ Shows Much Ambition

The Circle X Theatre Company is presenting Aphra Behn’s rollicking Restoration comedy “The Rover” in a vaultingly ambitious staging by Michael Michetti at the Actors’ Gang.

Set in Naples shortly before the Restoration of Charles II to the British throne, the play concerns the adventures of a group of exiled English cavaliers during the time of Carnival. Belville (Connor Trinneer) languishes for the love of young Florinda (Wendy Abas), a Spanish noblewoman destined for another. Willmore (Michael Eric Strickland), the roistering Rover of the title, languishes for just about anything on two legs that happens to be female, especially and including Florinda’s sister Hellena (Melanie van Betten), convent-bound but concupiscently curious, and Angellica (Gwyn Fawcett), a celebrated Italian courtesan whose calculating heart is pierced by the penniless Willmore.

Taking a page from Peter Brook’s book, Michetti makes this Carnival a whirling visual treat, filled with dancers, prancers, stilt-walkers and fire-eaters. Sean Sullivan’s costumes are simply splendid, and Randy Kovitz’s fight choreography shows us swashbuckling at its best. Handsome and dashingly offhanded, Trinneer is exceptional as the love-struck Belville.

By contrast, Vajdon Sohaili is hilariously overplayed as Don Antonio, the noble fop betrothed to Florinda. Overplayed also, but to less fortunate effect, are Strickland and Van Betten, whose labored performances overstrain the fun and make us yearn for a lighter comic touch in their key roles.

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* “The Rover,” Actors’ Gang, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 8 p.m.. Ends Aug. 23. $15. (213) 969-9239, Ext. 2. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.