"Too Clever By Half" is one of those plays that's too clever for its own good.

In the Crowded Kitchen Players' (CKP) production of "Too Clever By Half," subtitled "A Diary Of A Scoundrel," the agit-prop of the script gets in the way of the props, of which there are few.

"Too Clever By Half" continues weekends through June 29, McCoole's Arts And Events Place, 10 S. Main St., Quakertown.

Even with the introduction of the actors in the 14-charactter play (three actors each play two roles) prior to the play's start, a scorecard, flow chart and program insert explaining Russian Czarist politics circa the mid-1800s, would come in handy.

Kudos to the actors for memorizing and delivering often unwieldy dialogue and pontificating ("Improvement of the Russian people."). Huzzahs to CKP co-founder Ara Barlieb for choosing the play and getting it up and running.

The 1868 satirical comedy by Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (1823 -1886), said to be the "Shakespeare of Russian theater" (he wrote some 47 plays), has quite a pedigree. In a New York City production, General Kroutitzky was played by acting theoretician Stanislavsky.

The great Russian film-maker Sergei Eisenstein staged a version during the 1920s at the Proletkult, a propaganda apparatus formed after the Russian Revolution.

The CKP production of the play, as translated by Rodney Ackland (1908 - 1991), an English playwright, actor, director, has the air of a drawing-room comedy.

Barlieb has added pieces of business for the actors, apparently at least one new character and lots of trademark CKP pratfalls, to keep the action moving, add comic relief, and keep the audience engaged at some level, if not at the level of the script's lofty ambitions (nothing less than the skewering of the ruling class).

In "Too Clever By Half," Yegor Gloumov (Ryan MacNamara, with a nice intensity and the appearance of Roddy McDowell in the 1971 movie, "A Clockwork Orange") is attempting to scheme his way into wealthy Moscow society. All the while, he keeps a diary.

Gloumov is well-coached in the art of deceit by none other than his mother, Madame Gloumov (Sharon Ferry at her "Mommie Dearest" best). Hanging around is Stripkova (Sarah Thomas), the apparent added character.

There's a fortune-teller, Madame Manaiefa (Ellen Brickman, in a very humorous eccentric turn); Neel Fedoseitch Mamaev (Brian Keller, otherwise earnest, but with a Max Headroom-like stutter), and his wife, Kleopatra Ilvovna Mamaev (Lauri Beth Rogers in a very controlled coquettish turn).

When General Kroutitzky (David Oswald at his rascally-autocratic blunderbuss best) strides on stage, the play kicks into gear.

Madame Tourousina (Pamela Wallace) continues the high-minded tone before Mashenka (a very beguiling Thomas) brings matters back down to earth.

Other characters include Kourchaev (MIchael Thew), a Czarist soldier; Lutvina (Nancy Mikkelsen), a press agent; two other fortune-tellers, Matriosha (Mikkelsen) and Lubinka (Ferry), and Gouritalan (Chris Donahue), a servant.

According to a dictionary definition, if someone is "too clever by half," the person is irritatingly devious rather than clever and is usually found out.

It's a lesson told with lots of wink-wink, nudge, nudge humor in CKP's "Too Clever By Half." It's from Russia, with humor.