If you care about the state of professional-caliber theater in Hawai'i, take in a performance of Paul Mitri's MoliEre at the Kawananakoa Backstage Theatre.

The play, which University of Hawai'i professor Mitri also directs and stars in, made its world premiere at the American University in Cairo and had a staged reading at the Seattle Shakespeare Festival. It's also an excellent choice to display the remarkable changes that have taken place for Hawaii Repertory Theatre.

Founded by Brian Lee Sackett as an afterschool program in 2002, the group offered its first adult production last year with Tom Stoppard's "The Real Thing," a performance that suffered under the heat and was lost in the vast auditorium. Now relocated to a new 100-seat, air-conditioned space on the main stage, HRT offers padded seats with armrests, excellent sight lines and good acoustics.

With creature comforts provided for, the audience is free to focus on the work, and Mitri's three-hour tribute to MoliEre has a great deal to take in.

"MoliEre" does for the great French comic playwright what "Amadeus" did for Mozart — fills in a created back-story of a troubled life behind the artistic successes. It is intelligently written, satisfyingly theatrical and ultimately moving.

The downside is that the piece has way too many notes. Three-act plays strain a contemporary audience and second intermissions can be deadly.

The 90-minute first act focuses on the early days of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, when the lawyer and son of a middle-class upholsterer develops his love of the theater and takes the stage name of MoliEre. Act Two shows him shaping his craft in the French provinces. Act Three follows his return to Paris and fall from favor even as he writes his greatest works.

By 10 p.m., and the end of the second act, the audience begins to show signs of tiring. Mitri — looking like a gaunt Kevin Costner in "Dances With Wolves" — is seemingly indefatigable.

The title role imposes huge physical demands. Not only is Mitri the center of every scene, he juggles, tumbles, takes pratfalls, leaps from tall windows, and is hoisted up on a winch to dangle from a rope.

"When your skills deteriorate," says MoliEre in the middle of the play, "You start doing tragedy."

The character ages from an eager schoolboy to an old man wracked by tuberculosis. He is an amorous lover, an estranged son, a grieving father, a cuckolded husband, and an arrogant playwright who exposes social hypocrisy through comedy.

"It's easy to criticize," he snipes, "it takes talent to mock."

There are also wonderful theatrical moments.

MoliEre first appears as an old man on the brink of death. (He died of a hemorrhage at age 51 within hours after performing in his own play, "The Imaginary Invalid.") The ghost of his mother (Eden-Lee Murray) appears to comfort him. Mopping his face, she removes his age makeup and wig. Taking his dressing gown, she reveals the young JeanBaptiste.

"I'll be back for you later," she says soothingly. Immediately, we know the shape of the play. But before his mother comes back for him we meet some interesting supporting characters.

Troy Apostol plays the Italian commedia artist who taught MoliEre the comic conventions that he incorporated into French farce. Hannah Schauer Galli is MoliEre's first love and — possibly — the mother of his young wife, played by Sharon Wezelman. Joshua Imlay is the young King Louis XIV and Rob Duval effectively plays multiple roles.

Period costumes are rich and colorful and Sackett's set design is a strong, two-story architectural backdrop of doors, windows and an inner playing area.

The theater itself remains difficult to find. Check the map at the group's Web site and follow the signs from the parking area. Listen for the string ensemble that plays on the grass outside the backstage entrance.

Now, if Mitri could find a way to cut 45 minutes from his script, "MoliEre" would be an unqualified success.

Joe Rozmiarek has reviewed theater performances in Hawai'i since 1973.