Theater

“Wonder of the World”: Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire rubs together cruelty and deformity, death and dysfunction till they strike comic sparks. Brooklyn wife Cass (Madelynn Fattibene) abruptly leaves her husband in the opening scene and tackles the to-do list she’s put off during her stultifying marriage -- from the eccentric (“Become friends with a clown”) to the extreme (“Go parachuting”). By play’s end she’s assembled a motley crew of mixed nuts in her Niagara Falls hotel room for a scene to end all scenes. Director Richard Israel hits just the right light, bright tone, and he has an ideal cast executing the play’s matter-of-fact mayhem.

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Ends Sunday at West Coast Ensemble, 522 N. La Brea Ave., L.A. (323) 525-0022.