THE VILLAIN OF THE EARTH

Cut out of Ben Ferris's production of Antony and Cleopatra, and panting for proximity to his old flame Natasha Fielding, randy character actor Philip Fletcher volunteers to play Antony to her Cleopatra in a rival productionand lives to see Rome in Tiber fall, as Natasha's lover and director, Sergei Shustikov (nicknamed ``Shitsky'' for a variety of apt reasons), makes his life miserable. And Natasha's, too, so of course she kills him in a fit of piqueand suddenly Philip and Natasha, desperate to cover up the murder, find themselves giving the performance of their lives. At least Natasha does (nothing like a spot of homicide to energize a Shakespearean heroine), though Philip, awhirl in a deliciously convoluted plot to pretend that Shitsky's still alive, finds time to sulk at the critics' complaints that his Antony is merely adequate. If only they knew. Philip's fourth breach of the peace (Bloody Instructions, 1992, etc.) builds to a delightfully satisfying climax, with a wicked final twist still to come.