Chance encounter of the witty kind

An ode to the Dewey Decimal System:

“Everything fits in there somewhere. The numbers connect every imaginable book, which means they connect every imaginable reader. Nothing and no one gets left out. I think that’s wonderful.”

Bursting with hope, these words are among the many small pleasures to be found in “Neutrino,” a sometimes brainy, sometimes delightfully bonkers bit of stagecraft by Unlimited Theatre, visiting from Leeds, England.

The rhapsody is delivered by a prim, tidy young librarian who, while on a train trip, gets to know her seatmate, a rumpled, chaotic, wannabe stand-up comic. Their chance encounter ricochets into another unexpected meeting, while, on another plane of pseudo-reality, a lecturer describes randomness and coincidence among the subatomic particles that give the show its title.

Art commingles with science, which is why the play was chosen to complement a popular exhibit about Einstein’s life and work at Skirball Cultural Center. A three-performance run concludes tonight.

As devised and developed by Unlimited Theatre, “Neutrino” calls to mind such cerebral hits as Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” Michael Frayn’s “Copenhagen” or Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

Though not as accomplished as those works, the piece reveals the promise of young minds at play. Formed in 1997, the fresh-faced troupe is now traveling the world, performing at festivals and generating buzz.

The spare staging of “Neutrino” is, in itself, a lesson in theater-making. Nondescript plastic chairs are moved about the essentially empty stage to suggest locations on the train, and a simple music stand serves as a lectern.

Slides, to illustrate the lecture, and bits of music and sound are all that are otherwise needed to bring the story alive.

As the librarian, Liz Margree peels away layers of reserve to reveal playfulness underneath; as the comic, Chris Thorpe humorously blunders his way through their encounter. Nearby on the train, a lesbian couple, played by Kayla Fell and Elizabeth Besbrode, face a moment of truth.

Short scenes involving these passengers are interspersed with snippets of the increasingly bizarre neutrino lecture, delivered by Jon Spooner with an enthusiasm verging on madness.

The train-traveling pairs are linked by a past relationship. To figure out how the lecturer might be associated with them, you have to connect the dots.

The show’s impact, like the behavior ascribed to the neutrino, is a bit random. Moments of clarity dissolve in puddles of muddle.

Still, the show nicely illustrates the miracle of connection -- of that chance collision that might just mean you don’t have to face life’s chaos alone.

*

‘Neutrino’

Where: Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.

When: 8 tonight

Price: $20

Contact: (310) 440-4500, Ext. 3; www.skirball.org

Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes