Theater

“Ladybird”: The poverty that is grinding away at those who’ve gathered to give 19-year-old Dima one last drunken bash becomes bleak poetry in the hands of Vassily Sigarev, a young Russian playwright whose work is being discovered in the West. His “Ladybird” gets a tense, moody presentation by the new Rushforth Productions in a rented room in the Bootleg Theatre. Full of pipe dreams and despair, “Ladybird” calls to mind the social commentary of Chekhov, O’Neill, Mike Leigh and David Mamet, among others. In Rushforth’s gritty production, this nightmarish depiction of post-Soviet life is riveting and eye-opening.

-- Daryl H. Miller

Ends Saturday at the Bootleg Theatre, 2220 Beverly Blvd., L.A. (323) 769-5245.