Moliere adapted a la Noel Coward

What a find: Here we have not only two sharp, sassy Moliere adaptations on one program but a production that shows off their wit and warmth to full advantage.

Adapter-director Tony Tanner has plucked “Les Femmes Savantes” and “Le Misanthrope” and lightly reset them in a Noel Coward frame. His new titles give an idea where he’s going -- “The Wise-Ass Women” and “The Man-Hater,” respectively -- except that the results aren’t mere winking frippery. This is Moliere with a drive and a lilt, a feint and a thrust.

It doesn’t hurt that his mostly exquisite cast is up to it. From the first moment, as “Wise-Ass” sisters Armande (Susan Hanfield) and Henriette (Elyse Ashton) burst forth to tussle over sex and suitors, we sigh with relief that we, and Moliere, are in good hands. In both plays the actors find the right swaggering but fleet-footed style for Tanner’s imperfect but delightful verse.

Space forbids extensive citation of Tanner’s well-turned zingers, seasoned with contemporary details that fit as nicely as Paula Higgins’ matter-of-factly resplendent and character-revealing costumes.

A typical punch line: In “The Man-Hater,” loyal Philinte (Scott Ryden) gently upbraids cranky Alceste (Stuart Howard) over his soft spot for an incorrigible tease (Victoria Hoffman) with the unanswerable put-down, “There’s a part of you still stuck in the dorm.”

My favorite, though, would have to be the flustered retort of a husband (Robert Harlan Greene) to his dilettante wife (Sara Shearer): “Parse my arse!”

Staged with surety in the round in an unprepossessing auditorium, this “Pair by Moliere” merits both the sitting and the parsing.

-- Rob Kendt

“A Pair by Moliere: The Wise-Ass Women and The Man-Hater,” Fiesta Hall, 1200 N. Vista St., West Hollywood. 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. May 29. Ends May 29. $15. (323) 461-5570. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

*

‘Lydia’: sex, lies and ambivalence

As Elvis Costello once mind-bogglingly put it, “When I said that I was lying, I might have been lying.” The sexually entangled characters in Phinneas Kiyomura’s sere, tender new play “Lydia in Bed” do a lot of this special kind of lying -- sincere but equivocating, half-confessing but always holding some deeper, darker confession at bay.

At its best, Kiyomura’s play, rendered by a strong, fearless cast under director Sam Roberts, makes his characters’ confusion palpable, conjuring a disturbingly recognizable ambivalence in the fractured tale of a young couple, Lydia (Millie Chow) and Bob (Kiyomura), whose budding collegiate dalliance is threatened by Bob’s laconic, womanizing father (an astonishingly, hilariously grim Phil Ward), by Dad’s edgy, drug-dealing companion (Lauren Letherer) and by Bob’s plaintive ex (Alina Phelan).

Roberts’ staging is stark and naked, both literally and emotionally, with an installation-like set of paintings on glass by TJ Moore and pulsating alt-rock score/sound design by Andy Mitton.

But once Kiyomura situates us in this house of mirrors, he gives us the runaround. In a self-consciously cut-up structure, he interrupts and replays scenes in out-of-order bits. Even what seem like straightforward monologues contain spring-loaded surprises.

Ultimately, the result is more formalistic than revealing. Kiyomura starts out wearing a compellingly conflicted heart on his sleeve and ends by pulling needless tricks from it.

-- Rob Kendt

“Lydia in Bed,” Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays. Ends June 4. $15 to $20. (323) 856-8611 or www.theatreofnote.com. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

*

‘Marat.Sade’ truncates classic

A little insanity goes a long way in “Marat.Sade” at Hunger Artists Theatre Company in Fullerton. Jeremy Gable’s “translaptation” of Peter Weiss’ 1964 agitprop classic is so effective that one regrets the compression.

A sensation from its Berlin premiere onward, “The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade” is an era-defining landmark. Peter Brook’s celebrated Royal Shakespeare Company version spawned countless college productions; that onus of academia is what this sly deconstruction hopes to remove.

Gable takes a ruthless knife to the text while retaining its basics. A play within a play, “Marat.Sade” mixes Brechtian comment, vaudevillian verve and existential angst into a wildly theatrical dissertation on sanity, morality and the nature of revolution.

Director Glendele Way-Agle keeps the mayhem moving and the tone ominous-hysterical. Cassendre de le Fortrie (costumes), Sandi Sullivan (set), Mark Matzkanin (lighting) and P. Matthew Park (musical direction) are assets.

Best of all is the accomplished ensemble. The contrasting subtleties of Mark Coyan as the Marquis and Mike Caban as Marat are exactly right, while Jessica Beane makes an incredible Charlotte Corday.

Other standouts include Gable’s nervous herald, Scott E. Derrell’s asylum doctor, Christopher Spencer’s stammering Roux and the mad singing quartet (Leonard Joseph Dunham, Alex Dorman, Amber Scott and Terri Mowrey).

Such assurance makes the show’s brevity a pity. The use of current vernacular grows faintly didactic in the short form, muting its effect.

There is much to admire in “Marat.Sade,” but this committed crew is ready to tackle the original fuller scope.

-- David C. Nichols

“Marat.Sade,” Hunger Artists Theatre, College Business Park, 699-A S. State College Blvd., Fullerton. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays; 8 p.m. Monday. Ends May 29. $15. (714) 680-6803 or www.hungerartists.com. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

*

Updated ‘Flower Drum’ returns

In 2001, David Henry Hwang’s updated “Flower Drum Song” was a hit at the Mark Taper Forum. In 2002, this rethought Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical of Chinatown culture clashes hit Manhattan, to thudding critical response. Its contours are on display at Fullerton Civic Light Opera, in a well-meant mounting that explains why it failed on Broadway.

Hwang seeks to liberate standards like “I Enjoy Being a Girl” and “Love, Look Away” from the dated stereotypes of Hammerstein and Joseph Fields’ 1958 libretto (based on the C.Y. Lee novel).

Mail-order bride Mei-Li (Kristine Remigio) becomes a Kennedy-era refugee from Chairman Mao’s regime in the opening “A Hundred Million Miracles.” She lands in San Francisco, at the traditional opera house run by Wang (Paul Martinez).

He and son Ta (Cliffton Hall) embody heritage versus assimilation. This central theme incorporates nightclub star Linda Low (Sharline Liu), her agent, Mme. Liang (Karen Lew), and Mei-Li’s yen for Ta. At the red-and-gold wedding finale, cast members share their own origins.

Hwang’s book hardly earns its melting-pot ending. Awkwardly reprogramming songs, the jokes create new cliches and a whole other stereotype in flamboyant Harvard (Samuel Chen). Jan Duncan’s direction and Karen Nowicki’s choreography are shadows of Robert Longbottom’s original staging, and the players are more dutiful than dynamic. Remigio and Hall sing beautifully, yet her all-purpose sincerity and his obvious non-Asian aspect feel generic. Musical director Lee Kreter produces plush sounds, Gregg Barnes’ costumes remain spectacular and, as sage Chin, Broadway cast member Alvin Ing is still wonderful.

Otherwise, this foggy effort is, alas, strictly for fans of the score who enjoy seeing a girl in a giant takeout carton.

-- David C. Nichols

“Flower Drum Song,” Plummer Auditorium, 201 E. Chapman Ave., Fullerton. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 29. $22-$45. (714) 879-1732 or www.fclo.com. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.