Seven Doors

CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE Jeff Dolocek traces out an idea.

Photo: Anna Bahow

German dramatist Strauss’s tidy collection of one-acts is that rare case where vertiginous absurdity and sketch comedy perfectly overlap. Throw in an unsentimental-yet-sympathetic view of the human condition, and you’ve got a recipe for that still-rarer evening of light-touch entertainment, graced with notes of solemnity and mind-bending perspective. Under Acerra’s assured direction, a polished, whip-sharp cast makes the most of every moment the generous 1988 text has to offer.

Before Timothy Spencer’s handsome, multiple-doors, Japanese-screen-style backdrop, the actors file on and off to a squeaky-jazz-meets-Berlin-techno soundtrack, shuffling moddish chairs and door frames between scenes. The vignettes themselves drop logical-extension conundrums into standard dialogue of everyday frustration: A disgruntled tenant complains to his faceless corporate landlord that another building is squatting inside his; a bodyguard-for-hire considers a society entirely structured by bodyguardism; a Cubs-like public failure is given the full Hollywood treatment. Strauss’s wry, thin-air trains of thought arise organically from each situation, bending back to Earth when just about to disintegrate. All the actors bob and weave adeptly, stretching and contracting their energy to keep pace with the constantly shifting material, but Michael Norton, Allison McGrath, Hank Hilbert and Gary Saipe shine brightest in this worldly Premiere production.