Bender, which arrived Off-Off-Broadway Jan. 22, 1999, at The Red Room, ends its run on Feb. 13. The play tells the story of a hard-boiled, hard-drinking gumshoe named -- appropriately enough -- Bender. While recovering from a drinking binge, he's assigned by a mysterious, androgynous lieutenant to what appears to be a kidnapping case...or is it?

Bender is written-directed-designed by Eric Dyer, who also stars. Dyer is an associate artist of Wooster Group, The Builders Association, and as well as working on numerous Richard Foreman productions. Previous productions by Dyer include: Radio Hole and Beautifulland.

Also featured in Bender is a "noise based" theremin score composed by Blue Man Group zither player, Dan Dobson. Bender also features stars Maggie Hoffman and Scott Halvorson Gillette.

An earlier production of Bender premiered at the 1998 New York Fringe Festival, where it received good notice.

Sharing the bill with Bender, will be a solo "ode to excrement" -- Brown and Blue by Jamie Sneider. The latter show played at this year's NYC International Fringe Festival. Bender will play at The Red Room on East 4th Street. For tickets or more information, call (212) 777-6088.

-- By Sean McGrath