A play by Luigi Pirandello is a little bit like a maze or a house of mirrors with no exit. No matter what thread you trace through the violent twists and turns of plot, and no matter how carefully you trace it, you'll still never figure out the proverbial "what happened?"


But that's fine, really, since you're no worse off than the characters or even the playwright himself.


A case in point is Pirandello's "Each in His Own Way," a new production of which recently opened at the Theater Na Maloi Bronnoi. Directed by the young Oleg Rybkin -- just his second professional outing after a rocky debut in May with Christopher Marlowe's "Edward II" at the Novy Drama Theater, the crux of this drama is something someone said about Delia, an actress with a questionable past, and what people think about it.


As often happens with Pirandello, the "play" we see is interrupted twice by balky actors and talky spectators who are hard pressed to understand what they are playing and seeing. Ultimately, the "play" breaks off unfinished, although a mysterious baron from the audience does manage to run off with the leading lady in a mirror image of Delia retreating with her lover Michele in the last scene of the interrupted performance.


Rybkin nicely lightens the Pirandellan labyrinth with playfulness and humor. He is ably aided in that by Igor Shumilov's airy set of a makeshift stage depicting the typical white-columned courtyard of an Italian villa. It is especially attractive when illuminated in a luscious peach color. Galina Golovchenko's beautiful costumes mix genuine elegance with rare comic dashes.


In short, most of the pieces are in place for a solid show. And up to the midway point, the production builds momentum modestly but surely, suggesting that things are on the verge of coming together. But it doesn't happen.


In fact, when the show reaches the stage where it has to take off now or never -- the belated appearance of the much anticipated Michele -- rather than soar, things grind to a halt. That is the point at which Pirandello cranks up his convolutions to the tightest notch, and, frankly, the makers of this show were not able to ride with him.


The story, as such, begins unfolding as the indignant Donna Livia (Yelena Smirnova) complains that her son Doro (Sergei Perelygin) has defended the honor of the scandalous Delia (Larisa Tuzhayeva). The offending remarks were made by Doro's friend Francesco (Vladimir Yavorsky), who visits Doro to apologize for his hot-headed behavior.


But, instead of making peace, the two each reverse their opinions, thus remaining opponents in the argument, and sending the affair to the brink of a duel.


Friends and bystanders are drawn into the intrigue, each with an opinion about the notorious Delia, but none knowing the truth. Neither the appearance of Delia herself -- who is said to have driven two men to suicide -- nor the appearance of Michele (Vladimir Vavilov) brings us any closer to the real facts.


Despite some heavy hamming from the troupe's female half (Smirnova's Donna Livia, and Olga Vedernikova and Yelena Fyodorova as two Young Ladies), the atmosphere in the early going is primarily brisk and clear. But as things progress, everyone looks increasingly like rodeo riders hanging on for dear life to a madly bucking bronco.


The production's highlight -- good enough that its afterglow is still felt even at production's end -- is the meeting of Tuzhayeva's icily elegant Delia and Perelygin's bumbling, love-struck Doro. Aloof and in total control, she masterfully manipulates the young man who has sworn he does not love her, but finds himself repeatedly dropping to his knees before her, tears glistening in his eyes.





"Each in His Own Way" (Kazhdy po svoyemu) plays this Friday and next Friday at 7 P.M. at the Theater Na Maloi Bronnoi, 4 Malaya Bronnaya Ulitsa. Tel. 290-4093. Running time: two hours.