When a play is about a nose escaping the face of a vain town official and soon outranking the humiliated man, the audience should know they’re in for an entertaining night. But the story gets better as another poor citizen discovers fleeting fame in a tailored overcoat that causes his death and a lowly worker cracks to an illusion of grandeur.

These tales of cruel fate can only happen in Nevsky Prospect, a small town filled with silent leads, citizens in porcine masks and puppet characters.

The eye treats and light stories may be necessary to lace the horrific underlying messages in Rogue Ensemble’s latest interpretation of the Russian satirist Nikolai Gogol’s three most enduring short stories.



Bootleg Theater is located at 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. For more information, visit rogueartists.org.