Humor gets unearthed in ‘Notes From Underground’

In his current production of “Notes From Underground” at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group, director Josh T. Ryan has managed a neat trick. He has actually unearthed considerable humor in Dostoevsky’s subterranean work.

If you think that’s no big deal, consider the source. The dour diarist who is the piece’s protagonist is a relentlessly analytical neurotic whose overweening narcissism, coupled with abject self-loathing, makes him one of the most glum and exasperating characters in fiction. Not that you can blame Dostoevsky for his pessimism. Before writing “Notes” in 1864, he had been sentenced to death, exiled to Siberia and burdened with a dying wife. No wonder, then, that his utopian liberalism had given way to reactionary sentiments of the darkest hue.

Working from Zombie Joe’s wryly updated adaptation, Ryan approaches his subject with near-surreal archness, a frenetic tack that is hysterical in every sense of the word. Punctuated by Lynn Granville and Jeremia’s pulsing rock score, Ryan’s staging is necessarily compact, conforming to the limitations of this tiny playing area.

In his linchpin performance, the virtuosic Michael Blomgren plays the Underground Man, known here as Alex, with a trance-like intensity that never falters. Not so Chris Benton’s portrayal as Alex’s zombie-esque servant, an over-the-top turn that, although impressively focused, seems overblown in this context.

Shanna Scheppner, Dan Pucul and Kia Herman effectively burlesque their roles as Alex’s disdainful former friends. Charlotte Goor nicely underplays Liza, a prostitute who mistakes Alex for a savior.

Not perfect but always legible, this “Notes” fascinates as a pre-Prozac study in tortured egotism.

*

‘Notes From Underground’

Where: Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood

When: 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays

Ends: Feb. 12

Price: $10

Contact: (818) 202-4120 or www.zombiejoes.com

Running time: 1 hour