Fine Comedic Timing : The director of a Nikolai Erdmann play set in 1930s Russia sees parallels to today’s political reality.

Semyon Semyonovich Podsekalnikov is having a bad day. He’s lost his job. He’s living with his wife and mother-in-law in a crowded rooming house. It’s 1930s Russia. What more could go wrong?

Plenty, in Nikolai Erdmann’s classic comedy on the demoralizing effects of unemployment and political corruption, “The Suicide,” opening Monday at the Road Theatre in Sun Valley.

“His self-esteem is damaged, so he starts to raise hell around the house,” said the play’s director, Tim Ottman. “His wife mistakenly assumes he’s going to commit suicide--and then the miscommunication begins.”

Suddenly, everyone wants to use Semyon’s suicide to their advantage. A member of the intelligentsia urges him to do it for personal reasons. A woman named Cleopatra wants him to kill himself as a romantic-spiritual gesture to make her boyfriend jealous. A writer implores him to do it for art’s sake. The butcher hopes it will improve business. The priest figures as long as he’s going to kill himself, he might as well do it for the church.

“The funny thing is, no one stops to ask him ‘Why are you going to kill yourself?’ or ‘Don’t do that,’ ” said Ottman, a Hollywood native. He was also struck by the topicality of the subject: a nation staggering through hard times--which the government is unwilling to acknowledge.

“It’s similar to what George Bush was doing not too long ago,” Ottman said. “ ‘What recession?’ He may have been saying it for good reasons, like to boost morale, but it’s just not true.”

Ottman believes the material--which Joseph Stalin denounced and Russian authorities eventually banned--is also a good vehicle for the embattled one-year-old Road Theatre Company. In October, it suffered a production delay when the building and safety department deemed its facility not up to code--pushing the group into two months of intensive fund raising, and the opening of “In the Name of the People” into March.

Then in May, at the end of the run of “I-Land,” the company itself broke apart: Artistic director Gino Cabanas and half of the Road members departed in a dispute with the company that controlled the group’s nonprofit status.

“It was very difficult,” said managing director Taylor Gilbert. “But we needed to restructure, have more long-range goals. And there were personality conflicts, of course.”

Alicia Wollerton is the new artistic director.

“They needed some temporary leadership,” she said, “and I was the only one who fit the bill in terms of background and knowledge. But I didn’t have any idea what I was getting into. It’s a tremendous amount of work.” Wollerton, who trained in France and at California’s American Conservatory Theatre, noted that the 19-actor piece was chosen by the ensemble after a round of play readings.

“It’s a wonderful, timely play; I’m a big fan of Russian literature,” said the actress, who works by day as a grade school substitute teacher. “And it’s an excellent piece for the company. We’re not paying these people, so it’s important that they’re treated well--and that the artistic experience is something worth participating in.” So far, so good, she says.

“I’m surprised: Things are really coming together nicely. I just wish we had more members.”

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “The Suicide.”

Location: The Road Theatre, 10741 Sherman Way, No. 8, Sun Valley.

Hours: Opens at 8 p.m. Monday, with a gala party including Russian food, drink and live music; regular schedule begins Thursday, and continues at 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, indefinitely.

Price: Opening night: $15 in advance; $20 at the door. Other nights: $12.

Call: (818) 764-5363.