RECOMMENDED

The best thing about HIAH Productions’ shows is that they are completely ridiculous. The stories, wigs and costumes are ridiculous and everyone’s in love with the… ridiculousness of the whole affair. “HAYWIRE!”, a parody of the “fallen woman” movies of the fifties, is no different.

Miranda Towers (David Cerda), a circus vet with “sawdust in her veins,” kills her adulterous husband and his lover. Confined to an asylum, she returns fifteen years later to find her circus in the clutches of Sylvanya (Elizabeth Lesinski) and Reynaldo (Ed Jones). Blood and mayhem (cleverly enacted with Lolly Extract’s shadow puppet design) ensue.

“HAYWIRE!” has its problems: the first act drags like a lame elephant and some of the gag timing was opening-night off. But Cerda’s Miranda is reliably unstable; Jones, Lesinski and Megan Keach as Miranda’s daughter are over the top and back again. It’s discount-cheap Halloween fun. (Lisa Buscani)

At the Bailiwick Arts Center Studio Space, 1229 W. Belmont, (800)838-3006. Through November 15.