THEATER REVIEW : Marriage to Fairy King Proves to Be No Picnic : A Westmont College production gives a contemporary spin to work by an 18th-Century playwright.

Send in the clowns--and the fairies, and the snake charmers. So might the theme song go if 18th-Century Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi were plying his trade today.

A master synthesist, Gozzi combined some of the leading theatrical traditions of his time. The freewheeling antics of commedia dell’arte street theater erupt amid the more structured plot elements of Shakespearean comedy in “The Serpent King,” an original translation/adaptation by the Westmont College Classical Repertory Theatre of Gozzi’s “The Serpent Woman.”

The change in title alone is a clear enough signal the production has more in mind than resurrecting an academic curiosity.

Besides switching the genders of Gozzi’s protagonists, director John Blondell and translator Lesley Finlayson bring a distinctly contemporary interpretation to the piece, which features slang-laden improvisation and exuberant physicality set amid a wildly abstract, geometric set.

Though much gnashing of teeth among “Serpent Woman” purists is inevitable, there are some worthwhile results born of these artistic liberties.

For all its fanciful retreat to imaginary worlds, the piece retains Gozzi’s links to elemental human experience: infatuation, loss of identity, and trust amid adversity and uncertainty.

In this cautionary tale about the risks of inter-species romance, the Fairy King Cherestan (Peter John Duda) wishes to become mortal like his earthly bride, Farruscada (Toby Wahl), who remains ignorant of her mysterious husband’s immortal nature.

To attain his wish, Cherestan must subject Farruscada to a barrage of horrible tragedies, while her trust in him has to remain complete enough that she never objects. If she withstands the slings and arrows without cursing him, he will become mortal--otherwise, he will be transformed into a loathsome snake.

Where Gozzi’s original vision depicted an ambivalent man obsessed with his remote ideal of the feminine, changing the sexes of these star-crossed lovers makes the piece a none-too-subtle meditation on the woman’s struggle to balance independence and social responsibility within the shackles of a patriarchal society.

Farruscada’s last straw comes after seeing her earthly kingdom ruined, her friends and family killed or enslaved, and her children cast into a fiery pit, yet when she dares to complain, Cherestan chides her for being ungrateful.

Something of a cross between the story of Job and “I Love Lucy,” the plot unfolds in a sometimes whimsical, sometimes horrific style.

In particular, Gozzi’s colliding sense of comedy and tragedy emerges in his extensive use of clowns (Holly Allen Marsh and Noelle Cronin)--not, as in Shakespeare, to offer supplemental commentary on events, but as inseparable parts of the story.

Many scenes in Gozzi’s script are simply sketchy outlines of territory that must be covered, leaving it up to the performers to improvise the specifics. Members of the student cast have obviously had plenty of fun in this pursuit, coming up with lines like the description of a scene of devastation as looking “like bloody gums after a bad day of flossing.”

With his emphasis on earthy humor and physicality, even Gozzi would have laughed at that one.

Details

* WHAT: “The Serpent King”

* WHEN: Tonight through Saturday at 8

* WHERE: Westmont College Porter Hall in Montecito.

* COST: $10-$15.

* FYI: For reservations or further information, call 565-7040.