Play a surrealist triumph

If you want to see something like you’ve never seen before, go to Blackout.

The theater company dreams bigger than any other else and that absolutely shows.

If you were lucky enough to see “The Circus Plays,” you can appreciate what Blackout Theatre Company brings to the table. The Blackout core works on every detail collaboratively — a great idea as the company is bursting at the seams with talent.

This time Blackout produced “Rag & Bone,” directed by retired UNM professor Denise Schulz, and written by relatively new surrealist playwright Noah Haidle. The script mirrors Charlie Kaufman’s writing style (“Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”). The plot devices are outlandish, but at its core, the play is about people dealing with people. No matter how odd the story may be, it is undeniably grounded and identifiable.

The staging is quick and creative, much like Blackout itself. Jeff Andersen and Christopher Walsh play a pair of brothers who run a seemingly innocuous ladder store, which Andersen’s character, George, uses as a cover to sell human hearts.

But this is not your usual black-market organ operation. George quietly sells the hearts of saints and poets to meek, passionless souls who wander in looking for the spark for living. Meanwhile, an oddly coincidental heartless poet (brilliantly played by Nick Lopez) wanders the streets, unable to write or feel. He meets a hooker and her pimp (a golden comedy team played by Heather Yeo and Shannon Flynn) who helps him along with his fate of empty pleasure and painful experiences.

Andersen and Walsh are amazing onstage, and especially together. Andersen can do anything as an actor, though his second-act performance is truly his tour de force. Yeo is consistently hilarious and a delight to watch both in her bright and dark times. Shannon Flynn makes you laugh by doing nothing. His character, a pimp called T-Bone, will be a favorite for sure, giving ample time for Flynn to show ability for powerful drama as well as comedy.

The actors are subtly assisted through the play by a group of otherworldly musicians (Monica Demarco, Hillari Straba and Daniel Villanueva) in the corner functioning as a sort of Greek chorus. The other characters occasionally reference them, as they exist to punctuate entrances and exits, moments of truth and song, and fill the space with the most perfect urban ambience — glass bottles filled with water, an upside down trash can, saw and saxophone.

These are moments when Blackout truly moves beyond what is simply solid, professional theater to something so special and unique that is almost defies description. Come to Blackout to see things you will see nowhere else. In “Rag and Bone,” you’ll witness a heartless poet receive a blowjob from a hooker onstage at the same time as an open heart surgery.

Have you ever wondered what a pediatrician’s heart might look like? Well, now you can. Every prop is clearly made with attention and detail, putting The Box Performance Space’s small size to use so you may appreciate every nuance.

“Rag & Bone” is a dream you don’t want to wake up from. It’s absolutely bold, explosively creative, violently funny and, occasionally, heart-wrenching.