BY  E. HENERSON

We forgive the whiff of preachiness and the creative liberties Nilaja Sun has taken for dramatic effect. We can even overlook the hokiness of the ghostly janitor who is Sun's unlikely narrator.

We forgive all this because Sun's magical solo show "No Child ..." at the Kirk Douglas Theatre is as dramatically compelling as it is psychologically heartbreaking. For 65 astonishing minutes, writer/performer Sun is that janitor and 15 other characters, too. She believes that rhetoric, and therefore so do we.

The play tracks Sun's six-week teaching residency at a Bronx high school during which she got a bunch of 10th-graders to perform a play. These students, Sun makes it clear, are the bottom of the educational barrel. Nothing is expected of them except failure and jail regardless of anything the No Child Left Behind Act is able to accomplish.

"Damn, she got attitude!" one of the students marvels. Yeah, and she'll need every ounce of it.

Sun employs no props, makeups or costume changes. Her quickly morphing jump from character to character is nothing less than breathtaking. We meet the bullies, the diva princesses, the teachers, substitutes and security guards.

Under Hal Brooks' direction and via Sun's dexterity, we watch these students fight, banter, strut and ultimately even perform. A vocal inflection, a unique mannerism and a change in Sun's malleable face is more than enough to bring forth a new character (or four). Keeping everyone straight will not be a problem.

The play in question is Timberlake Wertenbaker's "Our Country's Good" concerning a bunch of convicts staging a Restoration play in an Australian penal colony. The significance of the play's subject matter, and its title, are not lost on Sun.

Sun herself is the committed teaching artist trying to make a difference - and pay back rent - against some rather long odds. In true Hollywood fashion, the teacher nearly quits, is persuaded to stay by an unlikely source. The show is jeopardized on several different fronts, but go on it does.

Best of all, Sun has returned to the New York City school system for nine years to go through it all again. In her class at least, the essence of "No Child ..." is utterly respected.