Victorian noir gets the Wilde treatment

On the surface, the sophisticated wit of Oscar Wilde has little in common with the seedy, hard-boiled underworld of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. But that hasn’t deterred director John Alan Simon and his adventurous cast from an intriguing, well-performed exploration of “An Ideal Husband as Victorian noir.” This new collaboration from the Met Theatre’s Classical Theatre Lab and Cedarburg Productions retains much of the creative talent, as well as the keen intelligence, behind last year’s well-received “Uncle Vanya.”

Wilde’s most complex (though in some respects less than ideal) play frequently invites reinterpretation and liberal adaptation to resolve its deeply conflicted comic and serious elements -- Oliver Parker’s 1999 film romp being a prominent recent example. But where Parker played up the story’s romanticism, the much darker focus here is on the classic noir ingredients of greed, political corruption and betrayal introduced via the play’s pivotal blackmailing femme fatale (Marianne Ferrari), who threatens to ruin a rising politician (Stuart H. Howard) by revealing his secret youthful indiscretion. Short on props but long on atmosphere, Simon’s staging sketches the play’s core message about imperfection and forgiveness in striking shades of noir.

Further validating the concept are newly created biographical entr’actes that draw explicit parallels between events in the play and the troubled life of its author. Deftly cementing this connection is Alexander Wells’ appearance as both the scandal-plagued Wilde and his fictional counterpart, the brilliant dilettante Viscount Goring, whose scalding cynical commentary gives way to unexpected idealistic sentiments when he intervenes to repair the marital damage between the politician and the wife (Elizabeth Karr) who idolizes him to a fault. Straddling irony and sincerity, the heroism of Wells’ Goring is very much in keeping with Sam Spade’s classic confession, “Don’t be too sure I’m as crooked as I’m supposed to be.”

This bold reinterpretation is not without its compromises, however. While the cast, with one exception, proves commendably adept with nuances of language, the abundant Wildean epigrams often fall curiously flat and lifeless against the somber tonal backdrop. Wilde’s signature wit sparkles only in the peripheral flirtatious repartee between Goring and his own love interest (Joy Jacobson).

The intensified seriousness also strains the play’s somewhat labored structural seams -- for example, the same leverage Goring uses to retrieve one piece of incriminating evidence would be equally effective in neutralizing another, against which the plot requires him to be powerless. Such lapses would be less noticeable in a breezier context.

-- Philip Brandes

“An Ideal Husband as Victorian noir,” Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 28. $15. (323) 857-1152. Running time: 3 hours.

*

A ‘Leap’ into Beelzebub’s lair

Emissaries of heaven and hell wrangle over a man’s soul. Hmm ... not a very original idea, and writer Arnold Margolin concedes as much in the course of his play “Leap,” presented by City Stage at Elephant Asylum Theatre.

Yet what the show lacks in invention it makes up for in comic entertainment.

Breezily directed by Susan Morgenstern and winningly performed all around, “Leap” takes place in a small, shabby New York apartment where Bob (Margolin), a once-successful television comedy writer, is about to throw himself out a window to end the misery of his declining career. Though the door is locked, a neighboring Columbia University student mysteriously rushes through it to stop him. (Production values are minimal, but they supply a couple of enchanting illusions.)

The student turns out to be Bub, as in Beelzebub (Adam Conger). Boyish and earnest, with a voice that cracks like an adolescent’s whenever he gets excited, he seems altogether undevilish. Still, his purpose is to get the hangdog Bob to sell his soul, and Bob is about to agree when his guardian angel, Anna (Kelly Wiles), bursts in, frazzled by a mugging that has deprived her of one of her wings. Sweet yet fiercely determined, she lets rip with some decidedly un-angel-like language when she’s exasperated.

Not for nothing does Anna and Bub’s childish arguing begin to resemble that of junior development executives. Margolin was a writer-producer for such television series as “Love, American Style,” “Private Benjamin” and “Growing Pains.” A certain amount of pain shoots through his funniest lines about ageism and fickleness, suggesting familiarity with the hell as well as the heaven of Hollywood, where selling one’s soul is the price of playing the game.

-- Daryl H. Miller

“Leap,” Elephant Asylum Theatre, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends May 25. $15-$20. (323) 960-5521. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

*

Spiritual crisis set in mosaic

Ensemble verve enlivens the experimental skulduggery of “Skin & Teeth” in North Hollywood. This latest storefront display from Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group is a notable garage-show concoction.

“Skin & Teeth,” billed as a “passionate dance-comedy spectacular,” sketches an ephemeral scenario of lost love. Set in a gray box, the piece concerns Orion (the excellent Gili Getz), first seen staring out at us from a cage.

With little warning, European-art-school insanity unfolds. The black-lighted “Liquid-Death Dancers” Christy Barker, Matt Kilo and Tania Pearson cavort about like demented hieroglyphs on Ecstasy.

The subsequent vignettes make up a mosaic portrait of Orion’s spiritual crisis following the death of his beloved Billie (Pearson). This fractured journey takes in, among others, crack addicts, flapper girls, space aliens and talking jackalope Yitzhak (Josh T. Ryan).

Under the direction of writer-producer Jordan Cole (alias Zombie Joe), the execution is droll, particularly Jeri Batzdorff’s costumes and Denise Devin’s choreography.

The limber cast is certainly unfettered. Getz suggests a mournful Ennio Marchetto, and his colleagues are uniformly appealing. Michael Artura, Cary Dean Bazan, Annie K. Rollins, Dee Smith and Annie Teegardin complete their wacky ranks.

What is less conclusive is the work’s net effect, which suffers from the scant length. The intended deeper reverberations require a broader palette than the hourlong format affords.

Still, if “Skin & Teeth” only scratches the epidermis and avoids the root canal, its ambitious complexion and bite are admirable all the same.

-- David C. Nichols

“Skin & Teeth,” ZJU Theatre, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. Ends May 24. Mature audiences. $10. (818) 202-4120. Running time: 55 minutes.

*

A folk myth with too many layers

The heroine of “Maria Morevna,” a mythic tale set in long-ago Russia, struts around in a midriff-baring leather top and miniskirt, with a sword hanging sexily from one hip. The villain’s face is painted to look like a Mexican wrestler’s mask. And a note in the program announces: “No children are actually eaten in the performance of this play.”

Sounds like campy good fun, yes? Well, it could have been. Instead, it’s a jumbled mess -- a folk myth filtered through the mind of someone who’s seen one too many episodes of “Xena: Warrior Princess” -- in its presentation by Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble at Gascon Center Theatre.

The piece is said to be inspired by a tale by Russian folklorist Aleksandr Afanasev, but bits of writer-director Stephen Legawiec’s script also seem influenced by tales as diverse as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Waiting for Godot” and “Hansel and Gretel,” strung together with run-of-the-mill conventions of the fantasy genre. Every once in a while he anachronistically throws in ultra-contemporary language to get a laugh, while, on the arty side, he incorporates music (some of it sung in Russian) and dance.

Narrated by a pagan priestess (AnnaLisa Erickson), the story takes place in Russia as pagan ideas are giving way to Christianity. Venturing into the mountains, Ivan (Gregory G. Giles), the son of a well-to-do clan, meets and weds the warrior princess Maria Morevna (Dana Wieluns). While Maria is off doing battle, Ivan unwittingly releases an evil demon (Mark Conley) who rushes out and captures her. Ivan asks for help from a hook-nosed crone (Jenny Woo) who has a taste for roast kid (and I don’t mean goat), while a rascally scavenger/prophet (Mathew Haley) and his put-upon servant (Lorin Eric Salm) keep showing up to point the story on its way.

The performers earn points for earnestness, but their work gets stuck somewhere between folk-tale formality and “Xena”-level outrageousness. Above reproach, however, are Beckie Kravetz’s wonderfully detailed helmets in the shapes of bird’s heads for three shape-shifting magician-princes.

For about half a second, “Maria Morevna” seems relevant as a commentary on religious differences. But in wandering here, there and everywhere, it ends up going nowhere.

-- D.H.M.

“Maria Morevna,” Gascon Center Theatre, 8737 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends June 15. $20. (310) 842-5737. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.