A Post-Nuclear World in ‘Riddley Walker’

“Ain’t that a larf?” asks the hero of Russell Hoban’s “Riddley Walker” at CalRep. He’s talking about the world 3,000 years after the explosion of the “one big one” in 1997. The larf is on the human race. It hasn’t learned a thing. It’s back at square one, trying to find the “numbers” that will produce primitive explosives.

The plot is no more extraordinary than your generic post-holocaust B-movie, but Hoban’s fable-like structure and his imaginative invention of a language that is all that remains of good English (its decline is already starting in pre-holocaust 1990) make the evening fascinating. It only takes a minute to tune in--the leader is the “Primintser” and the dread Usa (U.S.A.) controls the “puterlite” (computer elite).

Ashley Carr’s staging on D Martyn Bookwalter’s intriguing primitive grotto setting is notably colorful, and Craig Rovere’s wide-eyed Candide of a Riddley Walker gives the action a backbone and fine comic shading.

At Cal State Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd.; Fridays and Saturdays, also Oct. 24-27, 8 p.m.; call for Nov.-Dec. schedule; ends Dec. 15. $10-$14; (213) 985-5526.