Cockroach

Sam Holcroft's 2008 drama begins with a seemingly simple premise—five high school students in detention—and combines it with two other key threads: a classroom lesson on human reproduction and evolution, and an unnamed, ongoing military conflict that grips and discolors every aspect of society. The script draws a focal analogy with the cockroach, a creature that has adapted and changed over tens of thousands of years, surviving untold threats.

With its dramatically familiar classroom setting, pulsating soundtrack, staccato dialogue, and bursts of violence, Christopher Basile's arresting staging makes for a smashing U.S. premiere, coming off like an independent film that thrusts us into a world unnervingly similar to our own. A sextet of fresh young actors portray the five troubled teens and a young teacher struggling to keep a lid on her students' often explosive interactions. But Holcroft's text doesn't allow for much character development, using each role primarily to fulfill certain plot functions. Alexander Price and Katelyn Gault are the incorrigible, rebellious students for whom sexual encounters supersede all else. Adele Heather Taylor plays the soft-spoken "good girl" courted by an equally reticent student (Kevin Shewey). Only a few shades more detailed are a young woman of Nigerian descent (Kourtni Pollard), searching for her place in life, and the tough, no-nonsense young teacher (Kyra Kiener), whose forceful "you will learn" is part mandate, part threat.

At its core, "Cockroach" paints a bleak scenario of a broken-down Western democracy that can offer its citizens only misery and despair, then poses youths on the cusp of adult life who ask, "What's the point?" The grim answer the play delivers is that any course they choose is hopeless. On the other hand, it hints that elements such as compassion and empathy may be the only viable antidotes, however difficult they may be to achieve.

Presented by and at Monkey Wrench Collective, 204 N. Harbor Blvd., Fullerton. Sept. 9-Oct. 9. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (beginning Sept. 25) (800) 838-3006. www.monkeywrenchcollective.org.