‘Bald Soprano’ classically absurd

Well-tuned machine: Cutting Ball Theater’s ensemble – from left, Donell Hill, David Sinaiko, Derek Fischer and Anjali Vashi – functions fabulously in “The Bald Soprano.” (Courtesy photo)

SAN FRANCISCO — For theatergoers familiar with the works of Beckett, Albee, Shepard and other modern dramatists, Romanian-born French playwright Eugene Ionesco’s first and most famous comedy, “The Bald Soprano,” may seem trivial by comparison.

In fact, it does seem superficial compared to the playwright’s own later works, like “Victims of Duty” or “The Chairs.” But “Soprano” has been playing in Paris for the past 53 years — a testament to the significance of this early experiment in theater of the absurd.

Cutting Ball Theater founder/director Rob Melrose delivers a crisp new translation of Ionesco’s playful examination of the way we often manipulate language to pacify, confuse, confront and obfuscate.

Ionesco was inspired to satirize the inanities of language after studying English; the textbooks were full of sample conversations in which people politely informed each other of known facts: “The ceiling is above, the floor is below.”

But that was only the starting point; the playwright took the concept much further.

And Melrose’s stylized, presentational production — tightly choreographed and minutely detailed — ideally suits the material.

Slightly over an hour long in Melrose’s carefully paced staging, “The Bald Soprano” is a plotless set of monologues and dialogues involving two couples — the Smiths and their visitors, the Martins — plus a maid and a fireman.

Characters, with great fanfare and pomposity, tell utterly pointless stories and engage in conversational non-sequiturs, meaningless aphorisms, abrupt changes of emotion and action, and various circuitous, deeply illogical discussions of logic, spiraling down to complete linguistic cacophony (which Melrose effectively physicalizes by having the actors simulate malfunctioning mechanical toys).

The Cutting Ball ensemble functions like a well-oiled machine. Paige Rogers is particularly impressive as a primly smiling Mrs. Smith, given to sudden uncontrollable shrieks of rage.

She’s ably supported by David Sinaiko as her oddly volatile husband; Donell Hill and Caitlyn Louchard as the uneasy guests (who don’t discover until they arrive that they’re in fact married to each other); Anjali Vashi as the wild-eyed maid; and Derek Fischer as a gangly, amiable fire captain searching for a fire to put out.

Within Melrose’s tight orchestration, each actor finds whole volumes of delicious nuances.

Theater Review

The Bald Soprano

Presented by the Cutting Ball Theater

Where: Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor St., San Francisco
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays; closes Nov. 22
Tickets: $15 to $30
Contact: (800) 838-3006, www.cuttingball.com