What do you call a theater production about two low-quality cabaret singers who die of exposure at the North Pole while searching for the mythical Yeti? You call it absurd. Nharcolepsy is an absurd play. The trouble with absurdist theater is that it is always hit-or-miss. If done well, it has the ability to reveal truths and experience to an audience that may not be possible through more realistic theater. However, if a show is too absurd, if it's too avant-garde, it will commit one of the single largest mistakes in theater-failing to connect with the audience. The play Nharcolepsy, complete with a Belgian singer playing a sitar and a man dancing like a fur seal, makes no such mistakes and manages to be constantly hilarious and irreverent.

Nharcolepsy, starring the New York comedy duo Richard Harrington and Chris Kauffman, M.F.A '95, was shown in the Merrick Theatre in Spingold on Friday and Saturday. The show was brought to Brandeis by a grant from the School of Arts and Sciences, specifically for the Festival of the Arts.

Harrington played Gustav, a deadpan Belgian singer/musician who serves as the show's narrative voice. Harrington was uproarious throughout the show. He managed to keep a straight face and talk plainly and flatly to the audience as the spontaneous and crazy events of the play unfolded. His pseudo-German, slightly French accent was strange and wonderful, and it got a laugh every single time he said the simple French word "bon."

Kauffman, on the other hand, played Nhar, Gustav's mostly mute sidekick. Nhar is the polar opposite to Gustav's straight man. He is a raspy-voiced, slightly confused man, skilled in the ways of artic break dancing and pantomime. Kauffman was equally amusing and proved himself to be a talented physical comedian as he meandered about the mostly bare stage with widely opened eyes and a dazed look on his expressive face.

The play opened with Gustav addressing the audience, telling them that he and Nhar are lost 12 miles from the North Pole and will shortly die of hypothermia. Before entering the theater everyone in the audience was given four small Wiffle balls. Gustav tells the audience they must throw these balls if either he or Nhar appear to be falling asleep, and dying from hypothermia. The audience relished this opportunity and whenever either of the characters (usually Nhar) began to fall asleep a barrage of white balls was fired toward the stage.

Gustav informs thae audience that they are not real, but are merely a product of his and Nhar's imaginations because it would impossible for them to have a real audience while at the North Pole. Gustav then told the audience they would be witness to his and Nhar's final performance as cabaret singers on this frigid evening. Gustav maintained this detached yet easy rapport with the audience throughout the show. When an audience member in the front row noisily took pictures during the show (his shutter made an audible click), Gustav paused, turn toward him and thanked him.

Nharcolepsy clocked-in at just over an hour, and it maintained its gleeful charm and randomness throughout. Even when the two characters finally submit to the cold and fall into their final sleep, it isn't a sad moment. Rather, it's a reflective moment sprinkled with the refreshing acknowledgment of completion. The audience connected to this ending, and surprisingly, much like the rest of the play, it worked. If anyone had told me a week ago that an absurd play about goofy foreigners trailing a Yeti could be touching, I'd have laughed. After seeing Nharcolepsy, though, I agree.