When you're gay, outspoken and Iranian, the last place you want to be is -- Iran. That's what writer/director Assurbanipal Babilla discovered in 1979 during the Islamic fundamentalist rebellion against the Shah. Escaping to America, Babilla founded the Purgatorio Ink theatre company, which mixes experimental techniques, political themes, traditional fables and gay subtext. Babilla's latest, Born Again Killers, Or, Dead Women Talking, opens in New York June 5 for a run through June 29. Babilla describes Killers as dealing with "the misogyny at the core of the Judeo-Christian religion." In the play, a serial killer (Babilla), inspired by the first four pages of Genesis, dreams of a world before women came in and spoiled everything.

Starring with the artistic director in Born Again Killers are Suzanne E. Fletcher, Elissa Kammer, Lynne Kanter, Rebecca Levenfeld, Victoria Thomas.

Previous Babilla works, at such venues as La MaMa, PS 122 and the Vineyard, include Dog Spelled Backwards, Suddenly Something Recklessly Gay and Othello And The Circumcised Turk.

For tickets ($12) and information on Born Again Killers, Or, Dead Women Talking, at the lower East Side performance space KGB on East 4th St., call (212) 925-7469.

--By David Lefkowitz