L.A. Review: 'D Is for Dog'

The future is a living, breathing television commercial from the 1950s in Katie Polebaum's darkly twisted sci-fi comedy "D Is for Dog." It's a place where every morning is filled with sunshine, Maxwell House coffee, and Aunt Jemima pancakes for the perfect, post-nuclear Rogers family. There's the doting housewife, the hardworking husband, and their lovely twin children, Dick and Jane. Each day in Polebaum's teal-and-turquoise Pee-wee's Playhouse kitchen set starts with a special yellow pill provided by the omnipresent Conservation Corporation as the sun shines brightly over the white picket fence outside the window. The view, however, is anything but what it seems.

Polebaum's vision turns nightmarish in no time, which would never work in hands less skilled than those of director Sean T. Cawelti; a dynamite cast willing to take the hairpin turns without seat belts; and particularly the designers, who have created whimsical but complex puppets, computer graphics, and the ominously creepy Sunshine Machine, a fusion of Christmas lights and discarded junk that makes Pee-wee's pal Conky look primitive. If the inventive but warped "D Is for Dog" is a true peek at the future, one can only hope there's no such thing as reincarnation.

Presented by Rogue Artists Ensemble as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival at the Hudson Theatres, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. June 14–23. Remaining performances: Fri., June 15, 8 p.m.; Sat., June 16, 3 and 8 p.m.; Thu., June 21, 8 p.m.; Fri., June 22, 8 p.m.; Sat., June 23, 3 and 8 p.m. (323) 455-4585 or www.hollywoodfringe.org.

Presented by Rogue Artists Ensemble at the Hudson Theatres, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. June 28–Aug. 4. Thu. and Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 3 and 8 p.m. (213) 596-9468 or www.rogueartists.org.