DEATH WAS NEVER SO NOISY.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Theater Critic

Know this about the Road Theatre Company's production of "Big Death & Little Death": Audience members become awfully adept at inserting and removing foam ear plugs -- thoughtfully provided by theater management -- to counteract the effects of Condemption, the death-metal band that plays during scene changes.

The production itself? How about an extra dose of nihilism with your foreboding? Go ahead, take two.

Or even finish the whole damned bottle. And chase it down with a tumbler of Liquid-Plumr.

Larry Biederman's staging of Mickey Birnbaum's ever-so-bleak comedy (?) goes a long way toward getting and keeping your attention. The set, by Claire Bennett, evokes images of a car wreck. The circumstances of the play, fittingly, also involve a car wreck and its aftermath. Despite the lure, Road audiences may be advised to look away.

Dad returns from Iraq (during the first Gulf War), only to find that mom boffed a real-estate agent, and contracts a serious case of post-

traumatic stress disorder. Son and daughter -- he's a metalhead stoner, she's seriously morbid -- try to figure things out. And the family's pit bull has a litter and, you guessed it, proceeds to devour its young.

Gary (played by Sean Wing), the son, watches the dog maneuver and chalks up the behavior to nature. "What if nature sucks?" asks his worshipful sister, Kristi (Jeanne Syquia). "Nature's all we got," returns Gary.

Gary has his sister, his CDs and what little hope his spiritually stunted father (Jeff LeBeau) can muster. Miss Endor (Ann Noble), the school guidance counselor, also sees some potential in Gary. So much so that she takes him to a metal concert (Septic Wound and My Autopsy at the Forum), shares his drugs and has sex with him in the back of her car. "I'm the worst guidance counselor ever," she later laments.

Uh, probably.

"Big Death & Little Death" enjoys precisely that kind of grim humor, and Biederman's cast misses very little of it. The production is loud, scabrously funny, very much in your face and possessed of a hopeful sensibility that plays rather false. If the universe is going to come to an end, then let's see it come to an end.

Gary, his dad, Miss Endor and pretty much the entire cast are headed toward oblivion -- but an oblivion that comes with a kind of enlightenment. Gary and Miss Endor figure this out while tripping on a faux narcotic called Bub, which Gary has traded his pit bull litter to acquire.

And to make things extra creepy, there's something ominous growling and scratching from the ceiling and behind the walls. When that something finally makes an appearance -- inventively embodied by actor Zach Dulli -- the apocalypse is almost upon us. But not to worry -- if a pit bull flushed down the toilet can grow to healthy puppyhood, maybe the human spirit can similarly endure.

It's not so comforting, but it's about the best that Birnbaum -- and this dark and angry production -- can offer.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

BIG DEATH & LITTLE DEATH - Two stars

Where: Road Theatre Company,

5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday,

3 p.m. Sunday; through July 21.

Tickets: $25. [phone].

www.roadtheatre.org.

In a nutshell: Just try to emerge with eardrums -- and optimism -- intact.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Sex, drugs and very loud rock 'n' roll are all part of the Road Theatre's "Big Death & Little Death."