Street of Crocodiles

The Theatre de Complicite's production of The Street of Crocodiles is a succession of hallucinatory images, changing restlessly like the colorful patterns in a spinning kaleidoscope. Although based on the autobiographical works of Bruno Schulz (1892-1942), the influential Jewish writer slain by a Gestapo officer in his Polish hometown, it is less a play than an evocation, accurately described by its subtitle: "A Dance of the Mind."

As it demonstrated on Broadway last season with its widely admired revival of Ionesco's The Chairs, the London-based Theatre de Complicite is a probing and inventive troupe known for its daring blend of movement, rhythms and imagery. With Crocodiles, the company summons up the essence of Schulz's formative experiences in masterly stage pictures that are swiftly transformed into new and surprising ones.