One of the advantages of the Rogue is that it's like a sampler plate for local artists: You get a taste of what people are working on these days. That's particularly true this year for theater. The Fresno area is home to a number of new theater companies, and nearly all of them are performing in some permutation or another at the Rogue.

That's certainly the case with Epic Theatre Company, which tackles Christopher Durang's absurdist romp " 'dentity Crisis" with characteristic flair. Rather than attempt an original short play, which is a very iffy proposition -- just ask the producers in New York who are inundated with scripts from professional playwrights, and even most of them are problematic -- Epic artistic director Janine Christl opted for an established play. Smart move. Not only does Durang's irreverent absurdism fit in nicely with the tenor of a fringe festival, it also means not have to reinvent the wheel in terms of a serviceable script.

The play is a dizzying ride for both actors and audience. Jane (Ashley Hyatt) is recovering from a mental breakdown that culminated in a suicide attempt. And from the looks of her day, things aren't much better now that she's back home. Her overbearing mother, Edith (Lori Gambero), is a chatterbox of inanities, whether she's proclaiming the fact that she "invented" cheese or questioning whether her daughter really tried to kill herself in the first place. Problems with mom are secondary, however, to Jane's disquieting realization that her brother (Adam Schroeder) keeps turning into her father and then her grandfather.

In fact, little is as it seems in Jane's mixed-up world. Co-directors Christl and Julie Lucido, using a spare (and not very well lighted) temporary space at Studio 65, keep the absurd action moving at an appropriately everyday pace, never allowing their actors to descend into sitcom line readings. At one point, when Jane's mother asks if she wants to go to France, Jane repeatedly says no. Yet her mother triumphantly reports that Jane emphatically says yes. It's this topsy-turvy world of language and identity -- in which not even words mean what they're supposed to -- that gives the play its oomph.

The cast is crisp, with Schroeder and Hyatt particularly honed in on the spaced-out zone that makes the play such a hoot. If the whole exercise seems a little haphazard, from setting to some ragged transitions, it likely speaks to the fact that Epic is simultaneously rehearsing its next big production, Jose Rivera's "Marisol," coming soon in April.