You have to wait awhile in “The Devil’s Disciple,” which the Belfast Maskers opened last weekend, before you get a real taste of George Bernard Shaw’s wit. Those who know Shaw’s work might even say that the first part of this melodrama could have been written by anyone. It’s straightforward melodrama with stock characters, stock situations and nearly stock laughter.

Here’s the unusual part: The comedy is set in New Hampshire during the Revolutionary War. It concerns Dick Dudgeon, a local contrarian who has proudly professed a commitment to the devil. That might not sound like such a big deal these days, but this play takes place in Puritan times, and “I’m OK, you’re OK” hadn’t yet been an accepted life philosphy.

A scandal begins when Dick has tea with the wife of the town minister. British troops show up to arrest her husband for rebel activities. Mistaking Dick for the minister, they take him off for a quick trial and death sentence. The twist in the plot is that Dick, performed buoyantly by Matthew Bixby, behaves with Christian generosity, never admits his true identity and is willing to die to save the life of the minister.

Shaw admitted to crafting cheap tricks when he wrote the piece in 1896. It also brought him a windfall of money, which he was greatly in need of, and re-established his position as a playwright. (He had been working as a critic and earning a pittance at the time.)

The community actors under Belfast Maskers director Phil Price (who also marches into the production as a British sergeant) get off to a crawling start. It wouldn’t be quite accurate to say the action drags — although it does in some places. It would be more on the money to say the action takes place in the style of “mellow” drama, rather than a true melodrama. Many of these actors are inexperienced, and that shows.

But they all get their lines out eventually. At some point, the show moves from being tedious and into being a set piece. There’s gumption here, but in the self-assured manner of the Belfast Maskers rather than of the quick spark of Shaw.

That is, until the second half of the production. At the opening of Act III in the second half of the evening, “The Devil’s Disciple” leaps into Shavian spirit and gallops forth like a soldier announcing the next victory.

In part, this is due to the entrance of Gen. John Burgoyne, the kind of British skeptic you wait for in a Shaw drama. Larason Guthrie is towering and amusing in the role, and he injects his fellow actors with a charge of vivacity.

This production of “The Devil’s Disciple” requires your patience and a sense of investment. There’s a payoff in the end, and it’s always a treat to watch the unfolding of a Belfast Maskers set (this one designed artfully and simply by Linden Frederick) and the smartness of costumes and makeup (developed by a team of women behind the scenes).

Here’s one thing that the Belfast Maskers does without flaw nearly every time: It creates a theater piece with thorough and painstaking vision. That would be a fair assessment of this show, too. You might want to see more adept actors in many of the roles, but by the end of the evening, you may also feel that this cast has its own revolutionary impact.

The Belfast Maskers will present “The Devil’s Disciple” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 11 at the Railroad Theater in Belfast. For tickets, call 338-9668.