Obsession and Angst Roil Through Wild ‘Devil Inside’

Gene gets a surprise on his 21st birthday. He learns that his father, who died when he was a child, was actually murdered--and he must now avenge the death.

Sounds like the straightforward start to a typical suspense drama. However, when Gene’s mom (hilarious Christine Estabrook) produces Gene’s birthday “present”--the lovingly preserved feet of her dismembered hubby--we realize we’d better buckle up for a strange and bumpy ride.

“A Devil Inside,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s absurdist romp at the Whitefire Theatre, features a bumper crop of urban lunatics, all in the grip of peculiar obsessions, all on the cusp of apocalypse, all pressingly in need of Thorazine injections. Gene (Danny Strong) has an obsessive crush on Caitlin (Linda Cardellini), a nubile stalker obsessed with her Russian lit professor (James Harper), a wannabe Raskolnikov obsessed with Brad (Kevin Crowley), a deceptively innocuous fix-it shop owner playing host to a mysterious and obsessive acquaintance (Nancy Bell) while, of course, nursing his own secret obsession. Meanwhile, is Manhattan really sliding into the ocean? Only the city workers know for sure.

Imagine Jules Feiffer channeling Lewis Carroll and you’ll get some idea of Lindsay-Abaire’s indescribably wacky play, which blends elements of Greek tragedy, Russian literature and millennial angst into one effectively paranoiac pastiche, savagely well realized by director Jorge Cacheiro and his formidably funny cast. As the plot grows ever more circuitous and the action more wildly antic, a few latter scenes threaten to bog down in sheer frenzy. However, the superb actors sweep all before them in the sheer momentum of their untrammeled performances. Oxymoronicly speaking, it’s all in good nihilistic fun.

BE THERE

“A Devil Inside,” Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 4. $15. (310) 450-1878. Running time: 2 hours.