Who was that "Lady in Question" I saw you with last night?

That was no lady; that was Ephrata Performing Arts Center's longtime artistic director, Ed Fernandez, in dazzling drag as the flamboyant star of the EPAC production of Charles Busch's camp masterpiece "The Lady in Question."

Playwright Busch, best known for his mainstream Broadway hit "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife," was also the star and author of the first off-Broadway show I ever saw, "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom," in 1984. EPAC has tackled his offbeat oeuvre before with "Times Square Angel."

"Lady in Question" is Busch — and Fernandez — at their ditsy, over-the-top best. Busch's 1989 sendup of black-and-white anti-Nazi thrillers is both an homage to and a parody of films such as Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious." Likewise, Fernandez's performance pays homage to and parodies actresses of that era — the likes of Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead.

As the final star-dappled scene on a Swiss mountaintop closed with a swell of melodramatic music (by Michael Truitt), I fully expected to hear the iconic Bette Davis line: "Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars" ("Now Voyager," 1942). That wasn't the actual last line, but I still heard Bette in my head.

It's clear from the opening credits, shown on a screen at the rear of the stage, that the 10-member cast is having fun playing larger-than-life loonies like Baron Wilhelm Van Elsner (Bob Checchia), Countess Kitty de Borgia (Kristie Ohlinger) and the pigtailed Lotte Von Elsner (Mitchell L. Ernst, chewing scenery as the show's other cross-dressing character). No one, however, chews with more relish than Helene Reeser, an EPAC newcomer, as the imprisoned Raina Aldric. She brings a high degree of welcome silliness to her wheelchair-bound actress who has a case of psychosomatic paralysis that doesn't keep her from climbing stairs.

Director Gene Ellis (who also plays two characters) pulls out all the slapstick stops, from exaggerated "Heil Hitlers" to long, impassioned, feel-you-up kisses between Fernandez and Checchia and Fernandez and Evan Lloyd Cooper (as Professor Erik Maxwell).

Set in 1940s Bavaria (it snows onstage in the finale), the story is a nod to Hollywood movies of an era when nobody questioned the evilness of the Nazi bad guys or the courage of the women-in-love who stood up to them.

Fernandez is in his element as the larger-than-life Gertrude Garnet (pronounced Gar-nay), looking absolutely gorgeous as a slinky redhead in exotic costumes by Janell Berté (including a satiny pink dressing gown with fuzzy white slippers and a fitted German dirndl). This might be the role Ed was born to play.

But don't bring the kids. There is some jaw-dropping language and lots of murder.

If you think about camp when you think about summer, hurry over to EPAC. It's all the camp you could ever want, minus the s'mores.

"The Lady in Question" runs through June 12 at Ephrata Performing Arts Center, 320 Cocalico St., in Tom Grater Memorial Park. For ticket information, call 733-7966 or visit ephrataperformingartscenter....