King Stag, regia Andrei Serban

THEATER: 'KING STAG'
By MEL GUSSOW
Published: December 19, 1984

BOSTON ANDREI SERBAN has opened the season at the American Repertory Theater with a vivid production of Carlo Gozzi's Orientalized fairy tale, ''The King Stag.'' Filled with the marvelous costumes, masks and puppetry of Julie Taymor, this 18th-century charade should appeal to the fanciful at heart as well as the young in age.
At first glance, Gozzi would seem to be an anomaly, a traditionalist who was wedded to commedia del'arte at a time when his archrival, Carlo Goldoni, was advocating a more realistic, psychological approach to theater. Gozzi is best known today as the author of the original plays that inspired the Puccini and Prokofiev operas ''Turandot'' and ''The Love of Three Oranges,'' both of which Mr. Serban has directed in recent productions. This is Mr. Serban's season of Gozzi.
As the director demonstrates in ''The King Stag,'' Gozzi was an early Italian precursor of our contemporary fabulist theater, which takes ancient myths and turns them into relevant morality tales. It is a kind of pageantry that has been practiced by the Bread and Puppet Theater, the Talking Band and Miss Taymor herself.
Though one feels Mr. Serban's directorial imprint throughout the show, there are equal contributions from Miss Taymor and the set designer, Michael H. Yeargan. All three, collectively, have realized Gozzi's fantastical world.
''The King Stag'' transports us to the Kingdom of Serendippo, a court that is densely populated with plots and counterplots. The King is searching for a Queen, auditioning candidates rather than simply choosing Angela, who, alone among the applicants, loves the King rather than his kind. Soon we are on a royal hunt in the Forest of Miracoli where kingly souls mysteriously pass from human to animal form.
Each of the characters is emblematically masked and clothed; there is no confusing the heroes and the villains. The masks themselves are works of theatrical art, exceeded only by the puppets, which are as lifelike as Bunraku. From a talking parrot to a flying bear of huge proportions, they become an animated animal kingdom. Miss Taymor is able to project a considerable range of expression in her creatures, especially the figure of a feeble old man, who temporarily becomes the bony receptacle for the migratory soul of the handsome young king.
Behind the masks, one can spot the mimetic skills of Thomas Derrah as the King, Diane D'Aquila as his Queen to be, Dennis Bacigalupi, Lynn Chausow and Priscilla Smith. Miss Smith is cast as the comic villainess, a garish apparition who prides herself on her taste for ''hoot cootoor.''
Each is tutored in Mr. Serban's brand of commedia - bright and broad enough to be understood by the most youthful members of the audience. If ''The King Stag'' is, ultimately, not as much fun for adults as Mr. Serban's Moli ere melange, ''Sganarelle,'' it is because the text (adapted by Albert Bermel) is not on as frolicsome a level as the conceptualization.
For some odd reason, the director has decided to precede the 90-minute ''King Stag'' with an appetizer, a ''Gozzi Surprise.'' This 25-minute lampoon of the opera ''The Love of Three Oranges,'' is, in a word, a lemon. Fortunately, the main course is a festive holiday concoction.
Once Upon a Time THE KING STAG, by Carlo Gozzi; English version by Albert Bermel; directed by Andrei Serban; sets by Michael H. Yeargan; costumes, masks and puppetry by Julie Taymor; lighting by Jennifer Tipton; original music by Elliot Goldenthal. Presented by the American Repertory Theater, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass. CigolottiJohn Bottoms DurandarteRodney Hudson BrighellaHarry S. Murphy SmeraldinaPriscilla Smith TruffaldinoDennis Bacigalupi TartagliaRichard Grusin ClariceLynn Chausow PantaloneJeremy Geidt AngelaDiane D'Aquila LeandroChristopher Moore DeramoThomas Derrah