Port Twilight, or A History of Science

The name Len Jenkin might not ring a bell, but Dallas has seen quite a lot of the playwright and novelist’s work over the last 20 years. Half a dozen local companies have produced his often eerie, and almost always comic, surrealist plays. But no one else has made the same kind of whimsical sense out of them as Undermain Theatre’s Katherine Owens.

Owens first brought the avant-garde master’s work to town with Poor Folk’s Pleasure nearly 20 years ago. Much more recently, Jenkin’s wacky study of the transmigration of souls, Margo Veil: An Entertainment, took the highest spot on The Dallas Morning News theatrical Top 10 list.

Now Undermain offers its first Jenkin world premiere, Port Twilight, or A History of Science. This futuristic thriller includes a team of dancing scientists, a homeless rabbi and an out-of-control golem. Expect apocalyptic silliness.

Owens has been assembling a multitalented new company of actors who have shown up in its last four or five shows, and they’re all present here. Bruce DuBose has been Undermain’s leading man since the beginning, and Shannon Kearns-Simmons has been a star there since Margo Veil. But all those fresh young faces — Jonathan Brooks, Ian Sinclair, Christian Taylor, Stefanie Tovar and others — are a great resource for the theater.