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For a playwright like Richard Brinsley Sheridan, it would seem that surface is everything. Whatever real emotional content there is in the hyperactive comedies of manners for which the Irish writer is remembered is hidden so far beneath a varnish of crossing plots, running gags and foppish costumes that it is almost impossible to unearth. So, after the first ten minutes of the Everyman Theatre's gloriously wacky production of Sheridan's probable masterpiece, The School for Scandal, it's completely natural to stop expecting to find morals, sentiment or anything else in that vein. In fact, it doesn't take long for this adaptation of the show, worked out by Michael Bawtree, to start feeling like an unusually prolix, rewardingly ironic cartoon, which runs from scene to scene in a flurry of powdered wigs and laced bodices that take you right back to 1777.

But hold on -- this doesn't sound like the Everyman Theatre we know. Up until now, the company has specialized in small-scale, highly emotional drama, to an extent constricted by its compact and dark-toned performance space. However, under the direction of Everyman veteran Vincent M. Lancisi, The School for Scandal turns a small stage into a court of mayhem. The play's jam-packed story and sense of saturated wealth are actually aided by the limits placed on the performance. In this latest manifestation, the essential grandiosity of Sheridan's comedy -- peopled by scheming lovers, long-gone uncles, and mismatched couples -- is not lost, but focused into a lampooning vitality.

It would take much more space than this review allows to describe every contortion in Sheridan's plot. The main story, though, is a fairly direct prodigal son/dutiful son scenario, pitting upstanding young George Surface (Patrick Tansor) against his spendthrift sibling Charles (Alexander Strain) in competition for the favor of their wealthy uncle Oliver (Wil Love), who has just returned to England.

In order to determine who will inherit his fortune, Oliver decides to visit each of the two brothers in disguise, which will allow him an objective view of their true qualities. Meanwhile, Oliver's old friend Sir Peter Teazle (Carl Schurr) is coping with the whims of his much younger wife (Megan Anderson), who has apparently been carrying on a secret affair with George.

From here on, everything gets rather out of hand -- which is exactly the point. Charles later has a love interest of his own named Maria (Paige Hernandez), who is also being courted by a pretentious amateur writer named Benjamin Backbite (Bruce R. Nelson). He, in turn, has a social circle of such interestingly-named characters as Lady Sneerwell (Helen Hedman), Mrs. Candour (Rosemary Knower) and Crabtree (Stephen Patrick Martin), all of who circle back into the main Surface family plot.

Add to that a gaggle of drinking buddies for Charles and servants for everyone else, and you have a show that constantly threatens to self-destruct.

Thankfully, Everyman's actors and technicians present Sheridan's madcap situations with care, though the precision of their work is not always easy to spot in such a chaotic play. Set designer Daniel Ettinger has concocted an ingenious system of quickly shifting walls glutted with painted-on baroque ornaments that keep nicely with Gail Stewart Beach's dizzyingly colorful costumes.

One should expect nothing less than near perfection from a show that credits a specialist in "wig design" (Anne Nesmith) in its program. But the most satisfying stylistic achievement is the show's transformation of luxurious surroundings not into a simply gaudy atmosphere, but one that reflects the proud yet simplistic nature of Sheridan's personages.

This is probably why the exposition of The School for Scandal has a somewhat labored aura. Yet I'm inclined to think that the flaw is in the script, not the handling, since Sheridan's other major play, The Rivals, encounters the same problem. As Everyman's actors realize, the charm of the show's improbably-named characters resides in their dynamic interaction.

On their own, for instance, Tansor and Strain are unable to make the Surface brothers engaging, though each gets thrown into enough crazy situations to compensate. But their supporting players -- in particular Nelson -- emit fully professional comic exuberance.

Still, to have endured this long, Sheridan's script must be something more than a frenzied comedy of manners. Look at the sympathetic, energetic portrayals that Love and Schurr give to the older men they play, which are easily among the best turns in Lancisi's production. Or take Anderson's Lady Teazle, who so easily flits and flirts though the early scenes of The School for Scandal that, when her real feeling erupts later on, the play seems to halt in mid-stride.

Sheridan clearly didn't believe that his pompous take on London high life was completely credible. But, as Everyman's version shows, there might be more meaning below the play's surface than even its creator realized.

The School for Scandal will be showing at the Everyman Theatre through Dec. 17. Call (410)-752-2208 or visit www.everymantheatre.org for ticket prices and performance times.

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