House of Gold

The still-unsolved 1996 Colorado murder of 6-year-old beauty-pageant contestant JonBenét Ramsey served as inspiration for Gregory Moss' surrealistic dark comedy, now in its West Coast premiere. This extremely disturbing portrait of child abuse and adult amorality is conveyed in a haunting, dreamlike style. Yet the challenging piece feels self-indulgently cryptic as its layers of unconventional dramaturgy lapse into the pretentious. An ambitious multimedia design is technically astonishing, creating provocative and unsettling imagery, though some effects feel arbitrary. Director Gates McFadden and a resourceful cast make admirable contributions to a project that stubbornly fails to cohere.

Rather than attempting to dramatize the real-life events, Moss aims for a symbolic representation of children suffering from the selfishness and cruelty of parents and other adults. He taps into the audience's probable familiarity with the murder case as a point of reference in setting forth his themes, which include ruminations on the warped values of crass media outlets and voyeuristic consumers who support sensationalistic news coverage. In the first scene, with shades of "Sweeney Todd," Woman (Denise Crosby) tells her husband, Man (Tony Pasqualini), that the ingredients in his breakfast sausage include "JonBenét Ramsey." This sets the tone for the gallows humor to follow.

Taking the most difficult role is adult actor Jacqueline Wright as the lively but confused toddler JonBenét. Wright superbly conjures the innocence, pain, and bewilderment of a child forced to cope with the pressures of adulthood and the vileness of exploitation. Pushed by her insecure mother (Crosby) to vicariously fill a void in her own life, the child is bullied into an embodiment of sexuality, glamour, and widespread adulation. JonBenét's father (Pasqualini) clearly harbors a sexual attraction to her, while a grandfather (Melvin Weiss) is stashed in the family attic for unclear reasons. A pedophile (Graham Sibley) lures her into his car. Meanwhile, a neighboring Caucasian kid, Jasper (adult actor Alex Davis), who oddly identifies himself as black, becomes a victim of bullying and violence by local youths (Chris Arvan, Josh Heine, Matt Little, Eric Schulman). Keith Arthur Bolden appears as a police detective.

The disconnected scenes and monologues are punctuated by Elizabeth Harper's dazzling lighting, Alexander Mirecki's eerie video footage, and William R. Parks' amazing projections.

Presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., L.A. Oct. 22-Dec. 4. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m. (323) 644-1929. www.ensemblestudiotheatrela.org.