The good and the bad, cataloged

Based on his novel, Carl Hancock Rux’s “Asphalt” is an evocation of a post-apocalypse neighborhood in Brooklyn, a work rich in mystery, danger and descriptive speeches, mostly delivered by Rux himself, that often begin as lists but quickly transform themselves into poetic incantations.

Despite the two projection screens overhead at REDCAT on Thursday that showed impressionistic, black-and-white video images designed by Pablo N. Molina, the 83-minute piece might have been mistaken for a radio play, with the four actors and two musicians nearly always seated, performing from scripts. Or maybe you could call it a verbal opera, since the pitch of each voice seemed as crucial as the overlay of music and sound textures composed by Rux and Jaco van Schalkwyk.

Rux spoke in a soft, creamy baritone expressive and even sensual enough to make you hang on his catalogs of architectural details, jazz bands, objects in a market and references to the Bible. Tony Torn’s character-tenor added faux-folksy contrast loaded with implications of threat, eventually culminating in an account of a terrorist bombing. Victoria Platt Tilford (Rux’s soprano) and LisaGay Hamilton (his mezzo) brought gutsy honesty and even brazen mockery to the verbal mix, challenging Rux’s character to see and speak more clearly. Meanwhile, Helga Davis provided singing of raw power, with and without the atmospheric guitar and piano musings supplied by Kwame Brandt-Pierce.

Rather than making sense of everything he saw and heard about, Rux’s character focused on getting it all into words, as if this landscape and moment in time might be lost if he didn’t chronicle it down to the last song title or item on sale in the marketplace.

He was warned of his irrelevance, that “we know this without words,” but obsessively persisted, creating what got called “nouveau realism,” though a question also arose about living in a poem versus living in a dream.

“Asphalt” didn’t often let you tell the two apart. The world it evoked is ours in many ways, but trashed, bombed out, leaving the characters isolated and Rux, in particular, desperate for answers and connections. As in many communities today, the police in his fantasy-Brooklyn inspired only fear, and any real safety no longer existed (“What is safe about closed doors and closed windows?”).

Knowing your own name became something of an accomplishment in this environment, but the physical world teemed with so much ruined splendor that Rux’s character fell over himself choosing the words to document it.

The result reflected a profound pessimism about the future of this country but also a belief in the power of art to find beauty in any eventuality.

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‘Asphalt’

Where: REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A.

When: 8:30 tonight

Price: $12 (CalArts students) to $22

Contact: (213) 237-2800