Traveling Through a Trashy Underworld

After seeing the liberal use of arthropods in the advertising art for “Cockroach Nation,” the squeamish might want to avoid this Moving Arts production at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. But the only cockroach seen in Matt Pelfrey’s well-acted, nightmarish examination on homelessness is an amusingly odd character named Cockroach Boy, played with lusty physicality by Ogie Zulueta.

The audience walks through an ill-kept, dimly lit “alley” passing furtive human beings. The atmosphere becomes dense with stage fog, but thankfully not with the smells associated with the neglected alleyways and commercial trash bins of Eric L. Germansky’s set design.

The Trash King (Cisco X. Drayton) makes a mysterious proclamation before white-collar conservative Hank (Cris D’Annunzio) appears. Hank has disturbing dreams about trash and trash days.

Lost in trashland, Hank meets Boone (Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter), who teaches him how to hunt rats. Boone’s companion, Cockroach Boy, slithers about on all fours and urges Boone to test Hank for visions.

If the first half is a mystical urban survivalist story , the second half is about Hank attempting to persuade his wife (Sharon Kahn) and stepson (Teddy Sanders) to join him.

Pelfrey’s script could use some editing, and Mark Kinsey Stephenson’s direction could be tightened. Fortunately, Stephenson hasn’t soft-pedaled the ugliness of homelessness, displaying two predatory street denizens (enthusiastically played by Rebecca Rasmussen and David Davidson) as well as a victim of negligent health-care systems (Suz-Anne Fuhrmann). Deniz Muftuoglu’s creative costume design captures both the gritty and mythical elements of this story, which leaves us questioning: Has Hank gone mad, or is the world facing a trash apocalypse?

* “Cockroach Nation,” Moving Arts at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Studio 5C, 514 S. Spring St. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Sept. 10. $18. (213) 485-1681. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.