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Thomas Middleton may have written Women Beware Women some 400 years ago, but in adaptor-director Jesse Berger's spirited production for Red Bull Theater, the play feels like a potboiler from 1950s filmmaker Douglas Sirk.

The sense of both the Jacobean era and the days of Eisenhower is made abundantly clear not only by Clint Ramos' costume designs, where a vivid yellow cocktail dress almost resembles a massive corseted top and skirt from the Renaissance and a preppy argyle vest complements a brocaded long-coat, but also by the flourishes in David Barber's scenic design, which actually seems to use padded and studded headboards from the mid-twentieth century (there's even a starburst mirror hanging on one side of his handsome, and witty, balconied set).

Aspects of Middleton's plot, a mix of sex, repression, and violence also might have fueled a black-and-white film. Bianca (Jennifer Ikeda), newly married to a humble clerk, Leantio (Jacob Fishel), becomes embroiled in an adulterous affair with the Duke of Florence (Geraint Wyn Davies). When Hippolito (Al Espinosa) confesses to his sister Livia (Kathryn Meisle) that he's in love with their niece, Isabella (Liv Rooth), Livia concocts a lie that allows not only Hippolito to achieve his amorous ends, but also gives Isabella the chance to follow her heart; she'd rather be with Hippolito than Ward (Alex Morf), the simpleton rich boy, that her father (Everett Quinton) has chosen as her fiancé. Livia's scheming isn't limited to her brother and niece; she's had a hand in arranging the affair between the Duke and Bianca, and she wiles her way into Leantio's heart. Ultimately, all of Livia's schemes backfire, and Middleton's play ends not unexpectedly in tragedy.

Berger's staging zips along for the first half as the stage is set for the bloodshed that generally comes from any tragedy of the era. And even though theatergoers can sense the impending carnage, it's difficult to not savor Meisle's carefully crafted turn as the duplicitous Livia and Ikeda's rendering of the self-confident, and later self-loving, Bianca. Similarly, it's delicious fun to watch as Leantio and Isabella, both sweeter and trustworthy characters, fall in line with the Machiavellian ways of their friends and family, including Leantio's sometimes trusting and sometimes shrewdly suspicious mother (played with comic aplomb by Roberta Maxwell).

Unfortunately, the production (and play) sags after the intermission (which would not have existed in Middleton's time) and it takes time for the momentum, so beautifully achieved during the first half of the production, to return. One reason for this slowness is that two of Middleton’s least interesting characters (and two less satisfying performances) come to the fore: Morf's overly whiney performance as Isabella's intended and Jonathan Fried's turn as the not-as-pious-as-he-appears Cardinal, who attempts to sway the Duke, who's also his brother, from his unsanctified relationship with Bianca. Once the action returns to the more central characters, though, "Women" moves briskly and inexorably to its end, which audiences savor with delight, in the same way they might relish an old black and white film that is simultaneously a guilty pleasure and a delectable bit of artistry.

---- Andy Propst

Women Beware Women continues through January 5. Performances are Tuesday through Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2 and 8pm and Sunday at 3 and 8pm. (Holiday schedule varies see www.rebulltheater.com for complete schedule information.) Tickets are $50-65 and can be purchased by calling 212-351-3101 or by visiting the theater's website.