Taking the measure of a trimmed script

The recorded chamber music that precedes Grove Theater Center’s “Measure for Measure” indicates the production’s scale. Director Kevin Cochran has turned Shakespeare’s thorny and complex play into a small-scale, small-potatoes chamber drama.

Much of the first half appears to take place literally in one chamber of the Duke’s palace, elegantly but sparsely furnished by Leonard Ogden. The many scenes that are set elsewhere take place in little spaces off to the sides, but there is no sense of leaving the palace until the furniture is removed at the intermission.

A dozen minor characters are missing, including those whose very names -- such as Elbow, Froth and Mistress Overdone -- are clues that this otherwise grim tale was intended to be a comedy. The only remnant of this layer of the play is the character Lucio, a know-it-all played with cocky enthusiasm by Matthew Siegan, in a bright red shirt.

Lacking a sense of a wider society beyond the palace, the sordid tale at the play’s core feels like a two-dimensional soap opera.

The action of the duke (Michael John Walters), who leaves his authority in Vienna to his ostensibly upright regent Angelo (Jeff Marlow) and goes incognito to spy on his subjects, seems even more baffling than usual without palpable evidence that the entire culture is decaying.

When Angelo tries to bribe the novitiate Isabella (Kim Jackson) into bed, in exchange for canceling the death sentence imposed on her brother (Billy Bradley), it feels like an isolated tawdry gesture instead of part of a larger phenomenon.

Marlow is a mild-mannered Angelo. His arrogance is defanged. Clad in dark-rimmed glasses and contemporary office clothes, he looks like one of the young Wall Street wizards who suddenly finds himself wearing handcuffs in the last act.

Actually, most of the actors in the leading roles look too callow. Better matches of actors’ and characters’ ages occur in the minor roles: Ed Gildersleeve’s advisor, Howard Ray Patterson’s Friar Peter, Eric J. Peterson’s Provost and Alana Antolak’s Marianna.

Jackson’s high-pitched Isabella speaks the words all right, but her transformation from shocked innocent to a more forgiving and worldly woman by play’s end doesn’t look deeply felt.

Walters’ duke is an enigma without the fascination that sometimes surrounds enigmatic characters. He occasionally dons a light Gaelic accent while undercover. He appears to be as stumped by his final proposal of marriage to Isabella as everyone else is.

The cast wears mostly modern dress, except for a couple of older-looking uniforms. Along with the elimination of so many minor roles, the up-to-date clothes may stem from cost cutting as much as from the aesthetics of the production.

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‘Measure for Measure’

Where: Gem Theater, 12852 Main St., Garden Grove

When: Thursday to Sunday, 8 p.m.

Ends: Sunday

Price: $21.50-$25.50

Contact: (714) 741-9550

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes