A murderous encounter

In the 1960s, American psychologist Harry Frederick Harlow conducted a series of controversial experiments, separating baby rhesus monkeys from their mothers and substituting inanimate surrogates, some made of cloth, others of wire. Cut off from all nurturance and social interaction, the baby monkeys were, of course, severely disturbed -- supporting Harlow’s theory about the need for physical contact in early development.

John Kolvenbach’s shatteringly well-crafted “On an Average Day,” now being presented by VS. Theatre Company at the Elephant Theatre Lab, concerns the human equivalents of those monkeys: two brothers, one schizophrenic and one “normal,” each tortured by the aftereffects of their emotionally isolated childhoods.

Currently on trial for attempted murder, the pitifully deranged Bobby (Johnny Clark) still lives in the moldering shell of his unhappy family home. When Bobby’s estranged older brother, Jack (Stef Tovar), pays an unexpected visit, he seems determined to shatter any delusions Bobby has about their widowed, pathologically cold father, who abandoned them at an early age. In increasingly incendiary exchanges, the brothers dip into the past -- for them, not so much a journey down memory lane as a Homeric crossing past devouring monsters, with little hope of eventual homecoming.

Danny Cistone and Joe Dallo’s compellingly filthy set, beautifully lighted by Derrick McDaniel, includes a cross-section of an attic filled with dusty artifacts -- a plastic Santa, Halloween decorations -- domestic detritus sadly emblematic of what once was.

In Ron Klier’s focused and authoritative staging, Clark and Tovar give performances of virtuosic volatility, while fight choreographer Ned Mochel orchestrates one of the most convincingly vicious brawls ever seen on a small stage.

As for Kolvenbach’s play, it gets the rhythms and utterances of the schizophrenic Bobby exactly right -- a coup, considering just how difficult it is to capture the circularity of a disturbed person’s mental processes.

“Average Day” bears obvious comparisons to Sam Shepard’s “True West,” but whereas Shepard’s play is more nihilistic in tone, Kolvenbach invests his drama with a bracing and hopeful humanism. Deprived and yearning, Bobby and Jack nonetheless share a rich human connection, however flawed. Cold wire notwithstanding, they still cling, laceratingly.

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‘On an Average Day’

Where: Elephant Theatre Lab, 6324 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays

Ends: March 22

Price: $20

Contact: (323) 860-3283

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes