Delightful, well-planned 'Travels'

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Graham Greene was very much a man of the 20th century — a writer with a broad perspective on the seductive and corrupting aspects of international politics, espionage and dirty business, and with a rich, edgy sense of the full spectrum of moral ambiguity that invariably accompanied his turbulent times.

A true mad dog and Englishman, Greene also had a searing understanding of human nature, and he could capture its extremes with a unique mix of cool outrage and wicked comedy.

All these aspects of Greene merge in the most beguiling and surprisingly passionate ways in “Travels With My Aunt,” the theatrical frolic based on his 1969 novel — a work that became a popular movie in 1972 , and was turned into a tour de force exercise for four actors by Scotland’s Giles Havergal in 1989.

It is Havergal’s rollicking version that is now receiving a vivid, supremely well-acted production in Writers’ Theatre’s intimate bookstore space in Glencoe. It is there that the very skillful director Stuart Carden has gathered four remarkable actors — Sean Fortunato, John Hoogenakker, LaShawn Banks and Jeremy Sher — who portray a slew of exotic characters while also slyly slipping in and out of the central role of Henry Pulling — an impossibly bland 55-year-old banker and bachelor in early retirement.

Henry’s narrow little life is totally transformed by the seventysomething woman of wild passions and unabashed resourcefulness he meets for the first time at his stepmother’s funeral. She claims to be his Aunt Augusta (a role played primarily by Fortunato, an actor of endless comic whims and wiles, and great physical grace).

Soon after they meet, Henry and Augusta are on board the Orient Express, making hasty stops in France, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey, before the fates (and Interpol) send this unlikely duo to Buenos Aires and Ascunion, Paraguay — home to Nazi war criminals, black marketeers, nasty generals and more.

Along the way, we meet Augusta’s lifelong passion — the criminal, selfish, wartime collaborator Mr. Visconti — and her much younger African “companion” Wordsworth (played by the fervent and marvelous Banks). We also meet a meek English spinster with a crush on Henry; a Texas-bred CIA agent and his pot-smoking daughter, a child of the 1960s, and an entrancing, poetry-loving South American girl of 15 (all played with a touch of genius by Hoogenakker). As for Sher, he, too, is a magician, supplying much guile and a staggering array of sound effects.

With its bravura gender-bending challenges and the opportunity to play characters of all ages, accents and temperaments, “Travels” (whose first act could use a bit of a trim) is a grand tour for its actors, and something of a nightmarish Mt. Everest climb as well. But these four plant their flag on every peak.

Brian Sidney Bembridge’s set (luggage racks stacked with vintage suitcases, plus a hint of Hermes’ luxury orange and black wrapping) is ideal, as is Mikhail Fiksel’s complex sound design.

And yes, you might argue with Greene about the moral and political choices he cheers in the name of living a bold rather than timid life. But the sheer triumph of joie de vivre — with champagne tastes trumping beer pockets — temporarily renders the whole argument moot.