Opening its 30th anniversary season with Shakespeare's underappreciated and oft-forgotten comedy about love and friendship, the Arizona Theatre Company masterfully transports "Two Gentlemen of Verona" to Tinseltown in the roaring '20s, the height of the s ilent film era.

Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein, responsible for last season's industrialized and morose version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," fares better with these two, so-called "gentlemen" - adhering more closely to his interpretive vision and fleshing it ou t from the costumes and scenery to the music and the overall mood.

As one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, "Two Gentlemen" is doused in playfulness and poetry; many critics consider it less developed and not as cogent as his later masterpieces. But Goldstein uses this structural looseness to his advantage. He is able to m erge the themes and mystique of the early silver screen with the flamboyant language the Bard endows his motley crew.

The play itself recounts the tale of two "gentlemen" and the women they woo (perhaps the prototypes of the four lovers in "Midsummer"). Longtime friends who are both no strangers to mischief, Valentine and Proteus take leave of their hometown Verona to pu rsue their schooling, among other things, in Milan. And while Valentine chides his cohort for his profuse and passionate affections he bestows upon Julia, he himself finds love with the Duke's daughter, Sylvia - sought after by the self-righteous Thurio.

In a Shakespeare-esque maneuver, familiar throughout so many of his comedies, problems abound when Proteus falls for Sylvia, betrays Valentine's engagement plans to the Duke, and forsakes Julia as if she were dead. Though not as malign and certainly not a s cunning, Proteus resembles Shakespeare's most villainous mischief maker - Iago (from "Othello"), bending all of the characters' misfortunes into his opportunities and letting love flit to and fro like a toy fit for a cat. He is hardly a "gentlemen."

But perhaps Shakespeare intended this all along. Mocking the superficial pomp and circumstance that is sacred to Elizabethan "gentlemen," one has to search hard to find a man worthy of the appellation in this story. Proteus betrays his betrothed and his s worn brother without a conscious thought - blurring the line between enemy and friend; Thurio, though respected in societal eyes, is as vain as he has wealth; the older Duke cannot understand women beyond the "childlike duty" they owe their fathers and hu sbands; Eglemor deserts a maiden in danger to pursue his own safety; and Valentine's greatest flaw is that he is outsmartable and one-dimensional.

And none of whom even glean an understanding of "love" - that which motivates them all.

The women and the two fools (Lance and Speed) are perhaps the only enlightened characters in the play, a tactic Shakespeare used repeatedly throughout his career. While Julia (brilliantly carried out by Stacy Ross) and Sylvia (Sabrina LeBeauf from "The Co sby Show") surpass their inconstant men in depth and authenticity, the fools come the closest to true gents.

One an odd creature overly attached to this dog, the other a player with words, Goldstein transforms Lance and Speed into a Vaudevillian duo. Endowing them with Buster Keaton/Charlie Chaplin grace, Shakespeare's playful lines echo a "Who's on first?" sket ch. Goldstein even works in allusions to Hollywood's great horror and Western genres - complete with images of Boris Karloff and John Wayne.

But mostly Goldstein's interpretation works simply because he has fun with the possibilities and allows his audience to do the same.

Perhaps not Shakespeare's finest hour upon the stage, "Two Gentlemen" is good theater in its own right. Critics often sell it short; understood from a satirical view, however, it provides insight into the nature of love and the relations between the gende rs as much as any of his others. And it is a testament to the unfolding of the Bard's creative and masterful genius.

Golstein and the talented ATC are guaranteed to delight any audience with their playful yet tight interpretation and their fine performances (including Sheffield Chastain as Proteus and Benjamin Livingston as Valentine).

See this one while you have the chance - you probably won't find another production anytime soon, and Goldstein's version ensures "you will wonder what hath fortuned."

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