This play has a couple of tricks up its sleeve

THE name itself refers to a nifty little trick, one wherein a magician peels an orange to reveal a lemon, then peels the lemon to reveal an egg, then cracks the egg and, voila, a canary. In much the same way, the play “Orange Lemon Egg Canary” seeks to present a layered metaphor, twisting and turning the tables on its characters while inculcating its audience with a sense of wonder, all thanks to genuine sleight of hand. “It’s using magic in a totally new way,” says co-star Brett Schneider. “As a real theatrical device.”

Grappling with deceptions -- big and small; literal and figurative; of the magical, romantic and self variety -- “Orange Lemon Egg Canary” is actually a love story, according to director Talya Klein, one populated by the threesome of Great (Schneider), a young magician, and his two would-be assistants Trilby (Elizabeth V. Newman) and Egypt (sometimes known as China, and played by Martina Lotun). “It’s about a man struggling with who he is, how to define himself outside of his role as a magician, and how to love a woman without being destructive,” says Klein.

But to find a leading man who could create a believable character and make coins disappear, perform card tricks and pull off the show’s central illusion -- “the hypnotic balance” -- the producers embarked on a two month quest, aided by the fact that L.A. happens to harbor one of the country’s most impressive communities of magicians, including those mysterious denizens of the famed Magic Castle. Enter Schneider, playing the unlikely role of 2002 San Francisco Stage Magician of the Year/Northwestern University theater grad. It’s a combination Schneider says was key in helping him to make sense of Great.

“Magic is very two-faced,” says Schneider. “You have to be completely gracious to the audience, but at the same time you’re manipulating them. A lot of the struggle my character goes through is that he’s aware all of his efforts have been going into manipulating people in a way that he thinks is very artificial.”

“What I love about the play is the constant parallels between magic and trust,” says Newman. “The hypnotic balance is a really beautiful analogy about placing faith in your partner despite the potential for great pain.”

Of course, “Orange Lemon Egg Canary” is hardly the first piece of recent pop culture to conjure up magicians. Books and films, including the Glen David Gold novel “Carter Beats the Devil” and “The Prestige” starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, have called upon the mystery of illusion, something Klein says she and her cast spent a lot of time mulling. “As a society, I think that, more and more, we’ve got such easy access to information, but we’re starved for wonder,” she says. “There’s a line in the play: ‘We all want to be fooled.’ Magic involves surrender the same way love does.”

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-- Mindy.Farabee@latimes.com

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ORANGE LEMON EGG CANARY

WHERE: East Theatre of the Complex, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thu.-Sat., ends April 5

PRICE: $25

INFO: (323) 960-7862; www.complexhollywood.com