October 7, 1989

Review/Theater;
David and Bathsheba Retold From Different Viewpoint

By MEL GUSSOW

Lounging in a bathrobe and speaking conversationally, the actress Mary Shultz recalls the story of David and Bathsheba. She tells it as her own story, as the victim of a king who seduced her and had her husband killed. As she explains in David Greenspan's ''II Samuel ll, Etc.'' (at Home for Contemporary Theater and Art), she was a woman completely without choice. If Bathsheba did not accede to David's offensive demands, she would have been stoned to death by the people.

In this interior monologue, Mr. Greenspan cleverly merges biblical phrasings with a modern-day Bathsheba's confessional musings, as in the remark ''David, chosen by God, was not the healthiest influence on his children.'' Bathsheba is quietly but relentlessly critical of David, as in her remembrance that, post-seduction, he suggested that they pray together. In this suggestion, one can naturally see contemporary evangelical correlatives. The sad fate of the unsung Bathsheba, who by her own admission ''sort of disappears'' from the story once her son Solomon has inherited the throne, is the most intriguing aspect of Mr. Greenspan's bifurcated play. As it turns out, it is only one of several principal strands. Among other things, the ''Etc.'' of the title refers to the difficulty of the artistic process. The playwright himself is represented on stage by a character (portrayed by Ron Bagden) who is supposedly writing the play we are seeing.

While Ms. Shultz speaks, Mr. Bagden is seen in the background at his desk, silently contemplating his creative infertility. Trying to will himself into inspiration, he is repeatedly interrupted by intimate homoerotic fantasies, which are recounted in graphic detail by Ms. Shultz acting as the author's ego. These fantasies not only impede the playwright's creativity, they also delay the telling of the far more interesting Bathsheba story.

In the second act, Mr. Bagden becomes the speaker, delivering a convoluted monologue about the various heterosexual involvements of a woman named Margot (and her friends) over a period of many years. Further clouding the question of gender, Mr. Bagden tells his story from the female point of view. With a plethora of unseen characters, the monologue seems almost as intricate as three-dimensional chess. The character of the playwright admits to creating confusion but does not alleviate it. Except for the fact that Mr. Bagden is still playing the role of the writer, the second act has only a tangential thematic relevance to Bathsheba, who has disappeared from the narrative, along with Ms. Shultz.

Although both halves of the play are self-concerned to the point of solipsism, in each half there is, at odd moments, a wry detachment. At the height of orgasmic release, the playwright says to himself, ''I've got to find a way to get this down on paper,'' and in so saying, records it for his audience. The play becomes a mirror within a mirror - within a mirror.

Doubling as his own director, Mr. Greenspan has given his work an appropriately austere production, a feeling of reserve - rather than flamboyance - that is reflected by the actors. Mr. Bagden carefully understates his lines, communicating the idea that he can follow his circuitous path even as it leads us into a labyrinth. Ms. Shultz is matter of fact and amusingly indelicate as Bathsheba. Though burdened by too many nonlinear levels of perception and an overload of sexual imagery, ''II Samuel ll, Etc.'' is indicative of a playwright with an intense, idiosyncratic turn of mind and a playfulness about the possibilities of theater.