By Margaret Regan WHOEVER HEARD OF an ambiguous fairy tale? Your basic fairy tale is the quintessential straight-line story: A heroine is oppressed despite her fine character and beauty, but her devotion to duty is invariably rewarded by marriage to a handsome prince and happiness everlasting. Or a put-upon youngest brother breaks away from his disdainful family to make his way in the world, returning not only with a fortune but with a heart forgiving of his nasty older brothers. And oh yes, he too gets a lovely bride and joy forever after. So it's unusual to find a fairy-tale play for children that deviates from these simple scripts. The Falcon, a production of Tempe-based Childsplay, not only expresses doubts about the inevitability of happiness for good people, it doesn't even provide a clear-cut ending. Adapted from a Russian fairy tale, The Falcon is about a young woman (conventionally beautiful and dutiful and despised by her older sisters) who is set to marry the nice young man from next door. But, unconventionally, Anna's not at all sure that workaday marriage is all that life should offer her. A storyteller, beautifully played by Ellen Benton, mysteriously arrives at Anna's house on the night of her engagement celebration, and spins a tale of what we moderns might call an alternate reality. In the teller's magical tale, acted out on the stage alternately with the "real-life" scenes of the engagement party, Anna undergoes a difficult and dangerous quest and saves the life of a dashing falcon-prince. Instead of marrying dull-but-steady Tevdore, Anna could wed the exciting stranger. What should she do? Well, that's up to the audience. To any adult who's had even a passing acquaintance with romance, the conflict between long-term security and incendiary fireworks is nothing new. Do you go for the guy who's definite husband material, like the hardworking Tevdore, or for the dazzling rake who, like the Falcon, comes equipped with shimmering feathers? But to children weaned on the certainties of traditional literature and the inevitability of TV plots, the question is baffling. After the play, an almost 11-year-old girl was genuinely puzzled. "I don't know what it was about," she said. Asked who Anna should marry, an 8-year-old boy, all befuddlement, said, "I don't know." To its credit, Childsplay has been doing risky children's theatre for 19 years, doing its best to broaden children's thinking, at the same time exposing them to top-notch acting and high-caliber stagecraft. Sometimes the company hits a near-perfect note, as in its marvelous piece about Alexander Calder and the nature of artistic creation (A Question of Balance) two years ago. But the company's exposé of the genocide of Central American Indians (Bocon!) from a season earlier is just not the kind of new knowledge young children need to have. The Falcon falls somewhere in between. With its sterling reputation, it's no accident Childsplay drew a crowd of some 115 on opening night, an almost unheard-of feat on Tucson's troubled small-theatre scene. And The Falcon didn't disappoint. Its staging is intricate, with large rolling platforms serving as everything from cottage walls to icy mountain peaks. There's plenty of magic, too, especially the falcon feather that glows, and even some comical singing and dancing to entertain youngsters lost by the plot. Chris Wilken, who usually works with Borderlands, skillfully handles his fine actors, drawing performances full of longing from Susie Schuld as Anna and full of anguished indecision from D. Scott Withers as her father. If it's news to your son or daughter that love is never clear cut and that happy-ever-after is not inevitable, well, that's OK. Just think what an interesting conversation you can have in the car on the way home. The Falcon continues at 7:30 p.m. Friday, February 16, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, February 17 and 18, at the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts, 408 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $11 for adults, $8 for students and seniors. For more information call 622-2823.

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