‘Cat’s Neck’: An Erotic Existential Odyssey

The late writer-director Rainer Werner Fassbinder took endless delight in chronicling the aftermath of his country’s Faustian bargain with fascism. Peeling back the high-minded bourgeois veneer of post-World War II West Germany, his films and plays laid bare the constants of greed and predatory cruelty.

In his dark comedy “Blood on the Cat’s Neck,” Fassbinder surveys this amoral tableau from the outsider’s perch of extraterrestrial visitor Phoebe Zeitgeist, who, we’re told in a brief introductory narration, has been sent to Earth to research democracy.

A moody, unsettling staging by the Aresis Ensemble at Santa Monica’s City Garage traces Phoebe’s odyssey through the economic oppression, deviant sexuality, violence and, above all, alienation that characterize Fassbinder’s sardonic view of mankind.

In trying to understand humanity, Phoebe’s problem is that she absorbs only the phonetics of language, not its meaning. Holly Riccuiti’s memorably offbeat performance has Phoebe echoing back snatches of overheard conversation--often horrific declarations of selfish indulgence--with an eerie, twinkling smile, like a zombie on Prozac.

Under Phoebe’s scrutiny, what begins as a series of self-absorbed monologues by various specimens of human obsession (Bill Moynihan as a lovelorn butcher, Eddie Ebell as a drug-addicted gigolo, and Christy Murray as a hard-edged dominatrix are particularly effective) gives way to confrontations between shifting pairs of characters. In a neat final reversal, Phoebe shows she’s learned her cruel lessons all too well.

Director Frederique Michel seamlessly orchestrates her well-cast ensemble through Fassbinder’s slow-mounting tensions, embellishing the adult themes with considerable nudity and striking visuals. Existential erotica is the thought-provoking result, culminating in the most sensual recitation from “The Critique of Pure Reason” ever--Immanuel Kant by way of Marilyn Monroe.

* “Blood on the Cat’s Neck,” City Garage, 1340 1/2 (alley) 4th St., Santa Monica . Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 5:30 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $15. (310) 319-9939. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.