"The School for Husbands," Moliere's 17-century comedy about the tyranny of romantic obsessions (and girly men in wigs) is fraught with daunting challenges. Festival Director Raymond Caldwell sought a straight-up interpretation to follow the bizarre and entertaining take on Moliere's "Hypochondriac" that bowed here three years ago. Such an order demanded a static set, period costumes and music, and rhyming couplets that could as easily derail the dialogue as delight audiences.

But Caldwell didn't turn to TSF veterans. Instead he tapped his network of colleagues to find director Roseann Sheridan of the American Players Theater in Wisconsin, plus a costume designer and a company of actors who have never worked in the Kilgore festival.

Together they produce a 10-character comedy that never runs out of steam until a brief and awkward post-climax dance number that simply adds little to an otherwise engaging and often uproarious show.

Richard Wilbur's 1996 translation stays true to the French playwright's effort to lampoon domestic oppression, a common societal ill under Louis XIV, but it also satirizes our modern tendencies to make relationships more complicated than they have to be.

Sganarelle (Mark D. Hines) prances around with grand gestures as fruity and fanciful as the vogue fashions he abhors in his countrymen. His ward, the orphan Isabelle (a sprightly Heidi-Marie Ferren) laments Sganarelle's lock-and-key approach to domestic life as she eyes Valere (Andre Martin). He tiptoes manically around the stage in rich golden locks, a Jan Brady of 1660s Paris, propelled by his infatuation with Isabelle, which may or may not spill over a little toward Sganarelle.

Any description of the machinations of these loony lovers would be a spoiler if it were even possible, but what they wear is just as important.

From the outset, everything about the production is anchored in Gweneth West's costume design. "Gwen not only designed them all; she taught us how to wear them," Hines said. "I've never been so inspired from the first day, being handed my character on a plate."

He was helped by the heat of the stage lighting, which on opening night generated a patina of sweat on his brow that he seemed to will out of his forehead with his wide-eyed intensity - all symbols of the mania and obsessions that doom relationships.

The actors generally exceed the challenge of rhyming every other line without droning, but none so much as Ferren, who takes Isabelle's playful, plucky duplicity directly to the audience with no reservation.

Sheridan's experience with outdoor theater shows in the clarity of speech she draws from the actors, and in the mileage she gets out of a set that hardly changes.

The artwork, including small nudes set in the walls and some decidedly phallic imagery, goes beyond the implication that something more than emotional infatuation is being talked about here. So why is that dance number so conservative and stodgy? Maybe it's the period. Or maybe it has something to do with a gentleman in the audience who, during a talkback session with the cast and crew, patronizingly asked about the actors' aspirations, as if demanding to know what they want to do "when they grow up."

These are professional actors, directors and crew who are already living their aspirations, returning year after year from all over the country to create productions as mesmerizing as this one under founder Raymond Caldwell's skillful supervision. They shouldn't be asked to play down to what someone might perceive as a local audience's expectations. That they generally resist that urge is a great credit to the festival.

THE COMPANY

Costumes for "School for Husbands" are designed by Gweneth West. Set and properties designer is Brian Ruggaber, with lighting design by Anthony Galaska and sound by Jeremy Reynolds. Stage manager is Stacey Flores; assistant stage manager is Tabitha Gutshall.

The cast includes Mark D. Hines, Nathan Emmons, Heidi-Marie Ferren, Maggie Kettering, Eileen Glenn, André Martin, Thomas Meaney, William Elsman, Rhydwyn Davies and Diedre Cantrell.

"School for Husbands" bows at 7:30 p.m. July 7, 9, 11, 19 and 22. Matinee performances (2 p.m.) are on July 2 and 15.

Mark Collette covers Smith County. He can be reached at 903.596.6303. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com