Walkabout Theater Company’s nearly wordless 70-minute piece, performed in a Laundromat, crosses Beckett with Sesame Street. Five characters including an aged, muttering attendant go way beyond eccentricity: a businesswoman wriggles out of her stained underpants while talking on her cell, a man who brings in his own votive candle and crucifix pulls out a knife and cuts a big hole in one of his shirts. Blessedly free of contrived romances and conflicts, Psycho-so-Matic’s “story” follows the laundry process: machine filling, wash cycle, spin cycle, drying. The piece might be about the yuppification of the city–everyone seems to be a spirit of the laundry except the businesswoman–but ultimately no one truly affects anyone else. And though the performers are admirably agile, committed, and adept at physical comedy, their interactions don’t coalesce into a meaningful whole. Finally this is an entertaining but somewhat aimless oddity. Opens Fri 5/6, 9:30 PM. Through 6/4: Fri-Sat 9:30 PM. Speed Wash Laundromat, 4721 N. Damen, 312-458-0566. $15.
