STAGE REVIEW : Cerillo’s Extraordinary ‘Desert’ Tops ‘Lineup 3’ Acts at Pipeline

Everything else in “Lineup 3,” Pipeline’s latest performance package at the Daniel Saxon Gallery, pales in comparison with Annie Cerillo’s extraordinary piece of clowning, “Desert.”

Cerillo plays five roles in her short piece: a hot-to-trot man and woman, their respective reproductive cells, and the offspring of their night of passion. Each new brassy creation is distinctively funny, yet the piece builds to a poignant and enigmatic ending that goes beyond caricature. Cerillo bounds across the stage with a gleeful mastery of every gesture and sound.

Her act opens the second half of the program. First up is Nancy Beverly’s ode to a great piece of fried chicken, “A Religious Experience,” which seems nothing more than a student exercise.

“What Is Next” comes next, an amusing glance at a performance artist’s mother and the outrageous act that precedes her daughter’s performance, written and performed by Genet Bosque with a sly eye for detail.

Ending the first half of the program is Tanith Lee’s “Written in Water,” about a close encounter with an alien. It’s far too measured and mannered in Bairbre Dowling’s heavy-breathing adaptation/performance.

Jane Zingale keeps us interested in Alison Baker’s boisterously surreal shaggy dog story, “How I Came West, and Why I Stayed,” in which cheerleaders are seen as legendary forces of nature.

Director-producer Scott Kelman wrote the last piece, “Magic,” an overextended joke performed by the only man on the bill, Jody St. Michael.

“Lineup 3,” Daniel Saxon Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. Friday-Sunday, 8 p.m. Ends Sunday. $10. (310) 207-4380. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.