Humor, rage in the Stalin era

A mordant fusion of comedy and outrage, "Red Star" is a characteristically bitter offering from British playwright Charles Wood, also notable for the screenplays "Help!" and "The Knack." Wood, who came in on the tail end of the Angry Young Man epoch in British theater, neatly avoids the curmudgeonliness that has afflicted many of his contemporaries. Full of rage and not a little horror, "Red Star" is still a brass-plated hoot.

The play is set in Russia in 1951, when an ailing Stalin still holds his country in a thrall of terror and paranoia. Friends denounce friends; husbands denounce wives. The Soviet citizenry, one character points out, is divided into three groups: those who are serving time in the country's prison camps, those who have recently been released, and those who are en route.

For young Nikolai (Craig Young), disaster is only a matter of time. An aspiring actor, Nikolai does a mean impersonation of Josef Stalin -- a dangerous party trick indeed. Condemned to 30 years of hard labor for his effrontery, Nikolai gets a reprieve when he is cast as Stalin in a string of biopics glorifying the strongman. However, Nikolai later learns that there's a grim downside to his film stardom.

The first production of the Nomad Theatre Company's three-show season at the Matrix, this U.S. premiere was initially produced in the mid-1980s, yet some of its references are so timely that they seem to have been patched in from yesterday's headlines. Director David Payne grinds Wood's ax -- make that sickle -- to a sharp edge, but the performers' melange of various dialects makes little stylistic sense. Laura Fine's scenic design and Kristie Roldan's lighting are memorable, as are Aldo Shllaku's original music, David Beaudry's sound and Gelareh Khalioun's costumes. The cast is ably anchored by Young's Nikolai, a Chaplinesque naif whose refusal to compromise his own morality is alternately his salvation and his downfall.

F. Kathleen Foley

"Red Star," Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 18. $25. (866) 966-6623 or www.nomadtheatrecompany.com. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

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Daily treatment: How women feel

Don't be misled by its title. "Nice Tits" at the Alliance in Burbank is no peep show. A series of monologues, the show employs the operative metaphor of women's breasts to examine various passages in women's lives, from the comical to the harrowing.