Like that slow, satisfying burn of your favorite spicy foods, “The Book Handlers” at Buntport lingers with you long after you’ve left the theater and gets even better the more your mind dives into the juicy themes of the play. Seeming to draw inspiration from “The Twilight Zone,” absurdist playwrights like Eugène Ionesco (The Bald Soprano) and existential thinkers like Kafka, this show is a multi-layered piece about everything and nothing. The play centers on 4 characters who distress books in order to make it look like their wealthy owners have actually read them. They clock in each morning, exchanging the same greetings; toil at their tasks; make chit chat at the office; a bell rings to mark the end of the day and they exchange trite goodbyes. Though their work is absurd, the routine of the workplace is easily to recognize and pulls the audience into considering the meaning of life, the purpose of work, the power of words and whether Connie Diane and Jard are really acceptable first names (this is a Buntport show after all!). Masters at blending deep themes with quirky humor, the Buntport troupe, who write all their own shows, have done it again. A triumph! Catch “The Book Handlers” now through 3/17.

March 5th 2018, Go Play Denver