by David Jette

The sound of Casey Smith’s performance in his one-man show Violators will be Violated, playing at Son of Semele through Dec. 19, is disturbing in the best possible way. The sight is even more so. With all the grace of a drunken maniac, Smith abuses his body and his dignity in this contorted mime-style show that is outright hilarious.

Smith uses only a handful of spoken words in the piece, and gives himself only a wooden stool and a glass of water for props. But with his body, his friendly and demented expressions, and his willingness to cast himself in a library of humiliating roles (some of which include a polio-ridden dinner party host, a drunken bar slut with little regard for her intestestinal health, and a ballerina who vomits throughout the Nutcracker) he creates a mad space where decency and respect for human life are gleefully tossed aside. The show is a surprise - it is staged late at night and provides the audience with only a short list of the individual routines, and Smith himself starts the show as unassuming as can be. But the cottony mush of the segment ‘Mouth Sound’ (he simply smacked his lips for ten minutes while the audience cracked up, don’t ask me how it works, but it does) is enough to prove that words are secondary to humor, while suicide and deprivation are indispensable.

Violators will be Violated was created and is performed by Casey Smith. Produced by Jennifer A. Skinner for Circle X Theatre Co.

Fridays and Saturdays through December 19 at 11:00pm at Son of Semele Theatre, 3301 Beverly Blvd.

Tickets at the door, $10 cash only. For more information, visit www.circlextheatre.org, or email vwillbev@aol.com.