“Long live chicanery and artifice,” declares Mascarille (JD Cullum). Mascarille is not the title character in Moliere’s “The Bungler,” now playing in repertoire at A Noise Within in Pasadena. Using Richard Wilbur’s translation, this production embraces its theater roots and with plenty of laughs along the way.

As the audience enters, the cast is slowly gathering in makeshift rooms that are little more than sectioned parts of scaffolding upstage with ragged bits of cloth hung to separate each unit. The actors are putting the finishing touches to their makeup or costuming or passing the time idly  waiting for the show to start. It’s as if a traveling acting troop has blustered into town today and set up camp in a local field to give us a show. They even do some vocal warmup. We half expect a period version of “Noises Off,” but that would be a different play.

Mascarille is the servant of Lélie (Michael A. Newcomer), a wealthy young man with little ambition in the Sicilian city of Messina.  Lélie is betrothed to Hippolyte (Kate Maher) who loves Lélie’s rival Léandre (Kevin Stidham). Lélie’s father Pandolfe (Mitchell Edmonds) and Hippolyte’s father Anselme (Stephen Rockwell) agreed to wed their two children, but their children has different ideas.

As is often the case with bored rich young men, Léandre really wants whatever Lélie wants. Léandre wanted Hippolyte until Lélie fell in love with Celie.

Lélie has a talent for clothes and he is unfailingly honest. But this virtue becomes almost a vice because it is his honesty that bungles Marcarille’s plans which mainly involves setting up Lélie with the poor girl with big hair Célie (Emily Kosloski). Celie was used to pay a debt to Trufaldin (William Dennis Hunt) who is too grumpy and greedy to have licentious designs on the girl. He’s waiting for her caretakers to return but he could be convinced to sell her to someone else under the right circumstances.

Mascarille is determined to give his master a happy ending, but is warned by Trufaldin ‘”The next time I’m to be tricked; make sure your stories don’t conflict.”

The series deceptions that are bungled accidentally by Lélie who innocently exclaims he had no way of knowing any better leads to an endearing scene where Mascarille drills Lélie into their current deception. Don’t worry in the end, honesty will be rewarded and true love will be served, but the servants might not be well served.

Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott gives this production the feel of a down-and-out, nomadic theatrical company, adding musicality and small humorous touches. A tuba player helps the action along. All the nobles have faces powdered to a pasty white, but not slathering with thick clown-like opacity. Lélie’s father leads around a leash and harness that should belong to a small dog, in this case an invisible dog that even takes time to mark objects.

Newcomer’s Lélie may be “the world’s worst interferer” but Newcomer projects a child-like innocence and honor. He’s not a bad man or particularly stupid, but he lives in a world without guile or dishonesty. Mascarille, however, survives by his wits and Cullum aptly plays up both the frustration and the indignation of a servant who knows he is smarter than his supposed betters. It all ends as Mascarille observes “like a comedy.”

How pleasing to know that honesty has its own reward even if we’d much rather chum around with Mascarille than Lélie and doesn’t that say something about the state of the human race.

“The Bungler” continues until 27 May at A Noise Within, 3352 E Foothill Blvd.,    Pasadena, CA 91107. Call  626.356.3100 or visit ANoiseWithin.org.