Experiencing Reality’s Ebb, Flow in ‘Arden’

“Mrs. Wilson pelted me with her Bible. As far as experiences go, I figure you can’t get more religious than that,” Linden Arden (Colin Mitchell) recalls, in a voice oddly devoid of malice as he prepares for the sunrise service with a shave and some whiskey. A whole pew is reserved for him because Arden is a celebrity of sorts whose articulated reality forms a disturbingly warped reflection.

In “Linden Arden Stole the Highlights,” playing at the Sierra Stage, the audience is part of a shifting reality: They are the possibly imaginary guests of a troubled young man on his 30th birthday.

As our affable host, Linden lyrically describes his transformation from a San Francisco drug deal middleman to a “young, slightly eccentric Yank with a bottomless wallet” that helps rebuild Arklow, a small Scottish town. Surrounded by glowing Christian charity and admired for his prowess at soccer, Linden commits a deed so notoriously heinous that for five years no one has spoken to him and somehow Van Morrison heard about his deed and wrote a song.

Yet is Linden Arden his real name? Do the offstage children he rages about (“I’m going to have to hack your wee head off of you”) because they listen at his door even exist? Does the audience?

Using the Van Morrison song of the same title as a takeoff point, Mitchell has created a wonderfully savage morality tale in which Christian charity and tolerance turn silence into a punishment that seems more cruel and unusual than a death penalty. Director Barry Kramer guides Mitchell into smooth transitions between the clashing planes of reality within the overly neat, sparsely furnished, slightly creepy sitting room set, designed by Missy Bembo.

* “Linden Arden Stole the Highlights,” Sierra Stage, 1444 N. Sierra Bonita, West Hollywood. Fridays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 29. $10. (213) 850-0794. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.