Changing like the weather

John Strand’s “Lovers and Executioners” opens with an angry thunderstorm connoting all that has gone wrong between its central characters, a husband and wife. A cloud of suspicion has drifted across sunny skies and -- bang, crash -- the heavens have yawned open to release an ugly downpour.

From this portentous beginning, the action, set in mid-17th century France, suddenly shifts to the amorous game-playing of a pair of servants. In a clever staging at South Coast Repertory, everything that ensues -- from lusty gambols to shouted remonstrances -- takes place in a land of eternal love: a well-manicured garden with a wall fresco of frolicking cherubs.

But reality exists somewhere between the dark thunderstorm and the pastel garden, in a gray, nebulous world where emotions keep transforming into their opposites, then back again.

South Coast Repertory presented Strand’s “Tom Walker,” based on the Washington Irving tale “The Devil and Tom Walker,” in 2001. His “Lovers and Executioners” is similarly based on an earlier writer’s work, in this case “La Femme juge et partie” (The Wife, Judge and Accuser) by the French playwright Antoine Jacob de Montfleury, a contemporary and sometime rival of Moliere.

The play is a tangle of disguises, plots and romantic intrigues. Written in rhyming couplets, it is peppered with double-entendres and imbued with modern sensibilities.

Director Bill Rauch and his designers have fun mixing past and present, romance and naturalism. Shigeru Yaji’s costumes suggest the flouncy, ruffled styles of 17th century France, though they’re made of such obviously 21st century fabrics as denim and vinyl. The dreamy garden, by Lynn K. Jeffries, is painted with light, by Geoff Korf, that changes with the characters’ moods: cheerful blues, ominous oranges and dangerous reddish-pinks.

The opening storm engulfs wealthy businessman Bernard (David Kelly) as he sails from the deserted island where he has abandoned his once-adored wife, Julie (Libby West) -- an act that sentences her to seemingly certain death. The story then jumps forward three years, to the town outside Paris where they lived. Disguised as a man, the rescued Julie vows: “I must uncover the truth, somehow must I learn, / Why my husband from lover to executioner did turn.”

Bernard is now wooing the flighty, flirtatious Constance (Ruth Livier), who is also stringing along the pompous Spanish captain Don Lope (Julian Acosta) but is most infatuated with the disguised Julie. Watching over things are Julie’s levelheaded protector Octavius (Andrew Borba), who is always trying to calm things down, and the mischievous servants Guzman (Christopher Liam Moore) and Beatrice (Susan Dalian), who are usually trying to stir things up.

Rauch infuses the production with the playfulness that has characterized so much of his work for Cornerstone Theater Company, of which he is co-founder and artistic director. He and his actors mine every possible laugh as Constance wrestles the disguised Julie to the ground and pins her with a kiss, or as Bernard tries to impress Constance despite a disastrous fashion makeover that has him wearing a scabbard in a suggestive yet dangerous place.

The rampant sexuality might strike some theatergoers as coarse; the unhinged silliness might strike others as trivial. But those who give themselves over to this roller-coaster ride might discover hot tears rolling down their cheeks as the play finally yields its insights into honor impugned, trust shattered and love turned to hate.

*

‘Lovers and Executioners’

Where: South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

When: Tuesdays-Fridays, 7:45 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 and 7:45 p.m.

Ends: Jan. 25

Price: $27-$55

Contact: (714) 708-5555 or www.scr.org

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Julian Acosta...Don Lope

Andrew Borba...Octavius

Susan Dalian...Beatrice

David Kelly...Bernard

Ruth Livier...Constance

Christopher Liam Moore... Guzman

Libby West...Julie

Presented by South Coast Repertory. Written by John Strand, based on Montfleury’s “La Femme juge et partie.” Director Bill Rauch. Assistant director Laurie Woolery. Set Lynn K. Jeffries. Costumes Shigeru Yaji. Lights Geoff Korf. Music and sound Paul James Prendergast. Fight choreography Daniel R. Forcey. Stage manager Jamie A. Tucker.