The King Stag

By Carlo Gozzi

Directed by Andrei Serban

At the American Repertory Theatre 8 p.m., through September 5

GIVING THEATER LOVERS one last chance to see some of the most imaginative staging of drama in the United States, the American Repertory Theatre is bringing back its highly acclaimed production of The King Stag for the 350th anniversary celebration.

With prancing, stylized acting, colorful costumes and fantastical puppets, the actors of the ART bring to life a childishly innocent fable of love, death, ambition and jealousy with a sheen of post-modern wisdom. It's an easy fairy tale to like--pretty and suave, allegorical but not preachy. Nothing difficult, just an opportunity to sit back and enjoy.

Written by the 18th-century playwright Carlo Gozzi, The King Stag is the story of the king of Seredippo, Deramo (Thomas Derrah), who is searching for the woman who will love him for himself and become his deserving queen. With the aid of an animate Buddha statue, Deramo screens all his prospective brides for their honesty.

The deliciously feline Clarice (Pamela Gien) is pushed by her scheming father, Deramo's prime minister, into an interview with the king and his Budhha. She, who truly loves another, fails the test only to provoke her father's fury.

Another woman, Angela, has won Deramo's heart and Tartaglia's.

Tartaglia (Richard Grusin), the prime minister, is one of those delicious villains. Sweeping down on his victims, spreading out his insect-like cape, Tartaglia plots his revenge on Deramo and his possession of Angela.

THE ENSUING DRAMA, which includes a hallucinatory hunt in a magical forest for a stag with golden horns and a giant, kite-like bear, is poetic drama. The images are so pure and bewitching that even a love scene between Angela and the puppet of an aged, decrepit man operated by three people is humourously touching.

The ethereal and other-worldly quality of the production lifts it above any questioning or doubting. You don't need to convince yourself that this is tragedy or high comedy. Instead, this colorful cross between a Chinese opera and a puppet play, originally produced in the 1984-1985 season, pulls you into the fantasy with no resistance.

But this is not all wide-eyed and innocent fairy tale theater. Director Andrei Serban has thrown in his share of the hip and trampy. Brighella (Harry S. Murphy), the king's man servant, and Smeraldina (Isabell Monk), Brighella's sister, are the low-class comic duo strutting about the stage. Tramping about, dressed like a tattered peacock of a Southern belle, Smeraldina angles for the king and then anyone who will take her. And Brighella is not above telling her how used her wares are.

The imaginative directing of Serban, who returns this season to direct Sweettable at the Richelieu, the set by Michael Yeargan and the original, Chinese-tinted music by Elliot Goldenthal have combined for a perfect blend of the comically tongue-in-cheek, hip, innocent and wise.