Review: Odyssey’s ‘False Servant’ finds the cold heart of a classic

We tend to think of ourselves as the most jaded social observers in history, so it’s always jarring to discover a nearly 300-year-old work of art with a more cynical outlook than our own.

In his revival of Pierre Marivaux’s 1724 French play “The False Servant” at the Odyssey Theatre, director Bart DeLorenzo lays bare this bleak comedy’s heart of cold, hard cash, creating a world where romance and avarice have merged so completely that the sight of a banknote can reduce a man to babbling, trembling lust.

Martin Crimp resuscitated “The False Servant,” which had more or less dropped out of circulation, with this new translation in 2004, spangled with modern-day locutions while retaining an 18th-century cut and style.

But rather than updated, the text feels dislocated, caught between eras.

The production plays up this effect with its abstract set, a massive staircase to nowhere by Frederica Nascimento, Leah Piehl’s deconstructed period costumes and John Ballinger’s experimental sound design.

Marivaux (1688-1763) wrote in the shadow of his dramatic predecessor, Moliere, whose influence he both reflected and resisted. Heavily influenced by Italian theater, he employed familiar commedia del arte characters but blurred the lines between heroes and villains and eschewed neat plotting.

DeLorenzo and his cast and crew take this play’s subversive vibe as a license to be avant-garde and experimental. The results, while often interesting, have the effect of estranging us further from the characters’ already cryptic motivations.

The play first introduces the eponymous servant, Trivelin (Barry Del Sherman), by birth an aristocrat, whom poverty has forced into domestic service. From an acquaintance, Frontin (Cody Chappel, who doubles as a wandering troubadour), Trivelin learns about a job opening: serving an heiress who has gone undercover as a man to learn the true character of a potential husband.

Trivelin then essentially steps out of the story, joining forces with another servant, the money-crazed Arlequin (an odd, energetic and promising newcomer, Matthew Bazulka), to get drunk and blackmail their masters.

The focus turns to the cross-dressed woman (Chastity Dotson, of the Centric series “The Single Ladies”), who calls herself Chevalier and uncannily resembles the musician Prince, having disguised her gender behind a slim suit, a wisp of a mustache and some macho posturing.

She has already befriended her mark, Lélio (Christian Leffler), whom she finds so attractive that she can barely restrain herself from nuzzling him as they laddishly bond. But when he confesses his craven morals, she nonetheless resolves not to marry him.

Lélio is already engaged to a Countess (Dorie Barton, dressed like Marie Antoinette as reinterpreted by Courtney Love), but he has gotten word of a wealthier prospect. Breaking their contract will cost him; but if she calls it off, he’ll make money. So he proposes that Chevalier seduce the Countess to help him out.

Chevalier agrees, intending, or so she explains in a soliloquy, to free her fellow woman from the rancid Lélio and teach him a lesson. But the gusto with which she undertakes her seduction suggests that she might be kind of into it for its own sake.

As promising and topical as all of this sounds, the ensuing twists and turns stagnate and grow murky. Perhaps because the characters are all supposed to be acting, delivering performances within performances to accomplish multiple objectives and conceal their true selves, their behavior is stagy and mannered. They never seem truly invested in one another.

Though offering some laughs and arresting stylistic choices, the production as a whole gives off the arch air of an academic exercise.

“The False Servant,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends September 6. $15-$34. (310) 477-2055 ext. 2 or www.OdysseyTheatre.com. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.