‘Moscow-Petushki’ an Engrossing Show

If any production proves that less is more, it’s the riveting one-man show “Moscow-Petushki,� from Theatre Kana of Poland, currently playing in repertory with “The Night,� at the Odyssey Theatre. With minimal props and lighting, director and stage designer Zygmunt Duczynski has given magical life to Venedict Erofeyev’s novel of the same name.

Jacek Zawadzki plays a 40-year-old man, searching for the Kremlin in a drunken stupor and wishing to be on board the train from Moscow to Petushki. He has recently been “removed from the position of foreman� of an “inappropriate system of individual diagrams� that tracks the alcoholic consumption of various workers.

In the opening scene, a bare light bulb dimly shines, forcing us to squint at a hard-to-see Zawadzki, who must fight against the darkness that embraces him. There also is a wonderfully realized scene where Zawadzki dances in grief, his face lit only by a single candle set in an open suitcase.

With his husky voice and fluid physicality, Zawadzki gives an intense articulation of one man’s grief filtered through an alcoholic haze, half-praising the various types of vodka in a delirium that fuses fragmented memories into wild yet mysterious ramblings.

* “Moscow-Petushki,� Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A. English: Fridays, 8 p.m. Ends Jan. 17. Polish: Tuesday, 8 p.m. $18.50-$22.50. (310) 477-2055. Also at Orange County Museum of Art, 850 Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. Feb. 2, 2 p.m. $8-$10. (714) 759-1122, Ext. 204. Running time: 1 hour.