Finding the Fun in Existentialism

How can we recognize the resemblance between a horse and a sea horse without seeing them side by side?

It’s a question sculpted from Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory” by way of the Marx Brothers--one of many absurdist philosophical conundrums posed in “Diablogues,” an anthology of witty sketches by France’s Roland Dubillard at the Tiffany Theater.

Forget everything you may have heard about French existentialism being dense and ponderous. Director Florinel Fatulescu proves how accessible and entertaining it can be while prodding the intellect.

Dubillard’s rare genius lies in his ability to wrest complicated layers of neuroses from hilariously simple predicaments, and Fatulescu’s stellar cast delights with whimsical characterizations and crisp comic timing.

Our limitless capacity for blindness and self-deception becomes physicalized and visceral by Alan Goodson and Joe Hulser as a pair of ex-smokers celebrating their conquered habit even as they distractedly trade and light up cigarettes; by Larry Cox as a rabbit hunter trying to justify his predatory instincts; and by Goodson as a shopkeeper pitching a pair of opaque binoculars to Christy Keefe’s bewildered customer.

Cox and Goodson mime a mean game of pingpong in a sketch about a pair of guys who discover they each have a cousin named Paulette, then begin obsessing over whether it’s the same girl. Samantha Bennett horrifies a waiting room full of strangers with her way-too-personal confessions.

As much fun as the sketches themselves are Fatulescu’s intricate dissection and reconstruction of the separate scenes into an interlocking puzzle, in which events in one scene trigger the outcome in another.

The shining light of the production, however, is Jeremy Lawrence, whose wild-eyed, maniacally soft-spoken menace is existentialism’s answer to Gene Wilder. In a succession of astonishingly precise characters, Lawrence takes us inside the disturbed sensibilities of a piano student who becomes paralyzed over the deeper implications of playing a single note; a diner in a deserted restaurant driven batty by his obtuse companion (Hulser); an underground writer in the most elemental sense of the word (he composes warning signs for subways); and a conductor who leads the ensemble in an a cappella nonsense symphony (composed by sound designer Rodica Fatulescu) that weaves together random snippets from the other sketches in a hysterical finale.

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* “Diablogues,” Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 15. $20-25. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.