“Be prepared to enter the mind of a madman,” warn creator-performers Janessa Johnsrude and Meghan Frank early in this show, ostensibly based on the work of a 1920s Ukrainian poet, which digs gleefully through a trunk of vaudeville toys and tricks in the service of an absurdist premise.

Johnsrude and Frank are committed performers who make some memorable stage pictures—two pairs of stockinged legs dancing below a giant metallic paper fan, shadows behind a scrim—and their costumes are terrific, but the relentless weirdness and lack of story grow tedious long before the show is over.

This material would dazzle in an acting class, but an audience needs more to hold on to.

At the Firehall Arts Centre on September 10 (6:15 p.m.), 12 (9:45 p.m.), 13 (12 p.m.), 16 (10:45 p.m.), 18 (7:15 p.m.), 20 (5 p.m.)