Last Chance

“Pharmacopeia”: Director Matthew Wilder grabs you by the lapels and demands to be reckoned with, every moment of every scene. He hovers between epiphany and fiasco, inspiration and indulgence. Call it theatrical brilliance or pretentious twaddle, but you always know you’re seeing something; indifference is not an option. With writer Gil Kofman’s gleefully offensive lampoon, “Pharmacopeia: The Most Lamentable Tragedy of William Payne, M.D.,” Wilder has less a play than a playground for outsized conceits. Most of his cast is up to the challenge, and he achieves something close to dialectical clarity.

-- Rob Kendt

Ends Sunday at the Evidence Room, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A. (310) 869-0977