STAGE REVIEW : ‘Scapan’: Moliere’s Family Farce Gets Ocean Access in Del Mar

DEL MAR —  It’s not possible to compete with an azure sky overlooking a crystalline ocean rippling gently in the summer breezes in this north San Diego County town. All an open-air adaptation of Moliere can hope to do is complement the weather.

And the setting. To say the Del Mar Theatre Ensemble performs in a shopping mall is to say Van Gogh did oils. The Del Mar Plaza, current home to this family-oriented theater, is one of the smallest and classiest commercial enterprises of its sort, with lots of flowers, open space and elegant fountains to take the edge off the commerce.

On one of these open decks, with the Pacific Ocean taking up all of stage left, the Del Mar Theatre Ensemble is presenting “Scapan--A Family Farce,” adapted from Moliere’s “Les Fourberies de Scapin” by the director, Bill Ball.

Bill Ball? The very same who founded and was artistic director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre (and who was last seen in a smiling performance as Gaev in the recently closed La Jolla Playhouse production of “The Cherry Orchard”).

Ball has not permanently ventured into family theater (he now lives in Hollywood), but Del Mar Ensemble artistic director Bonnie Tarwater, a former Ball student, invited him to create this production for her year-old company.

Is this another one of Scapin’s/Scapan’s tomfooleries? Not exactly, but Ball is up to some of his better old tricks with this “Scapan,” which nimbly relies on the slapstick of commedia dell’arte in much the same way that did his memorable ACT production of “Taming of the Shrew,” wherein the stage was a boxing ring with the players sitting about its edges when it was not their turn to play.

In this tale of confused identities, the plot is standard. Scot Bishop is the wily servant Scapan, who manages to rob a pair of miserly fathers of their authority and money, reward their lovesick sons with the women they want for wives, and come out of it all relatively unscathed.

With the actors eclectically garbed in yellow and white, like an omelet gone berserk, this “Scapan” displays more spit than polish, but disappointed none of its younger viewers, spellbound in pint-size chairs under the canopy that covers the stage and sitting areas.

Bishop commands the tools of his trade, but lacks the natural playfulness of a true comedian, executing Scapan’s antics more by the book than the seat of the pants.

Phony beards and mustaches conceal Randall Walton’s and Dan A. Epstein’s peach fuzz as the glowering fathers, Geronte and Argante. Christopher Nelson (Octavio) and Bradley Thompson (Leander) are their panting, smitten sons, with Julie Ann Rogelstad (Hyacinthe) and Erica Shaffer (Zerbinette) as the objects of their obsessions. Mike Hockett does a worthy strut as Octavio’s servant, Sylvester, while Michael Murdoch fills in some significant gaps.

But fine points aren’t the issue in comedy this broad. Swiftness, smiles and simplicity are, and “Scapan” has them all.

Accessibility too. The good news is that the show will go on in this paradise all summer. The bad news is that the company has just lost its indoor home, which the Del Mar Plaza developers had made available in a corner of their upscale mall (along with a $5,000 subsidy for each production).

“We are redefining children’s theater and are more committed to it every day,” Tarwater said. “Being in a shopping center has been part of that evolution. People don’t put their kids in their Volvos and drive downtown to take them to the theater. We want to bring something of depth and importance to children. They sell $700 dresses here and we’re trying to sell $3 tickets for children’s theater.”

First mistake.

Tickets should be free. Volvos or no Volvos, mall theater is street theater. You can’t control or contain an audience, and freeloading bystanders are a fact of life.

But, look at it another way. The theater’s presence attracts families to the mall where they’ll spend money, sooner or later, one place or another. Ergo, the future for the Del Mar Ensemble must lie in getting developers--not necessarily these--to provide shelter and funds to cover the whole cost of production. That, to echo Tarwater, could be “a win-win situation.”

“Scapan” will play La Jolla’s Golden Triangle Saturday 7 p.m. and La Jolla Village Square Aug. 26, 2 p.m. The regular schedule at Del Mar Plaza, 15th Street and Camino del Mar, is Saturdays and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m. until July 22, then Saturdays and Sundays at 3 and 7 p.m. until Sept. 2. $3-$5. Information: (619) 259-6127.