STAGE REVIEW : 1-MAN SHOW IS WORTH THE ‘BOTHER!’

At the Stage Lee Strasberg in West Hollywood, a dolorous donkey, a somewhat clever owl, a timid pig, a self-centered, though loving bear and a small boy come to astonishingly vivid life, embodied in the person of British actor Peter Dennis.

Dennis’ one-man show, “Bother!,” is an evening of readings from A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh,” “The House at Pooh Corner,” “When We Were Young” and “And Now We Are Six.”

Don’t expect a kiddie show.

The show is a must for adults and older children--old enough to appreciate the spirit of reminiscence in Milne’s non-saccharine, superbly crafted tales and poems.

Dennis makes each character a living, breathing presence on stage, shifting back and forth from one to the other with extraordinary deftness and clarity.

Silver-haired, dignified, standing on a stage simply set with chair, table and books, Dennis becomes a wonderful, endearing, slightly rotund Pooh, the Bear of Very Little Brain, rubbing nose with paw, patting his stomach and rolling his eyes at the thought of honey.

With a lengthening of the face, a hunching of shoulders and a dispirited droop, Dennis’ Silly Old Bear becomes sorrowful, self-pitying Eeyore.

Then, with twitching shoulders, a timid tilt to the head, voice high-pitched and punctuated with nervous grunts, Dennis is little Piglet, a natural scene-stealer.

Christopher Robin becomes a very real small boy, not a caricature. He’s sweet and precocious, but not too much so. Robin, based on Milne’s own son and the inspiration for the tales, pops winningly in and out, asking questions of the storyteller and lending a hand as necessary.

Using body, face and voice, Dennis climbs a tree--and falls, hangs from a balloon, crosses a stream, runs through the woods and gets stuck in a honey jar. He is endlessly creative and the astonishingly solid illusions are in no way affected by the fact that there are no props and that Dennis holds onto the book as he reads.

The charming and whimsically absurd evening ends on a poignant note. Christopher Robin is growing up and new interests begin to captivate him. He takes his puzzled bear to “an enchanted place” and tries to say goodby, but as Milne wrote, whatever happens, “in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”

Milne and Dennis are a happy collaboration. Together, they make us laugh, catch the throat a bit and touch the memory of the child within each of us. An actor of enormous range, with extensive stage and screen credits, Dennis began performing “Bother!” in England in 1976. This is its first American exposure and, one hopes, not its last.

Performances continue at 7936 Santa Monica Blvd. through Jan. 24, playing Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 5 and 9 p.m. (213) 650-7777.