The Obscene Bird of Night
Open Circle Theater, 382-4250. Through May 5.

Open Circle's innovative staging of the Chilean novelist Jose Donoso's darkly humorous and deeply human masterpiece brings to vivid life the audacious historical sprawl evident in the best of magical realism. The audience is seated on either side of a terra-cotta courtyard with a door on either side. The actors dart, dance, and stroll back and forth across 400 years, giving audience members the sense that time itself is scrolling and unscrolling before their eyes, making a plot summary of The Obscene Bird of Night not only impossible, but irrelevant.

Perhaps you could make a case that it's about the downfall of the aristocratic family of Don Jeronimo de Azcoitia after the birth of a monstrously deformed son, Boy. Or maybe it's about Boy himself, surrounded only with other freaks so that he may never know he's different. Or is it the story of the ragged deaf-mute who pines for the indolent girl who waits in vain for her lover with the giant head?

There is not a weak member in this ensemble, but special note must be made of Kim Nyhous, in what could have been two inconsequential roles, using her wide eyes as instruments of humor and horror. Also worthy of praise is Gavin Cummins as Mudito, conveying the addictive torture of writing without saying a word. In the hands of this talented cast and courageous director Melanie White, these intersecting plots and many layers of myth and fantasy unfold like a flower to reveal at its heart nothing more or less than what it means to draw breath and dream.