The four-performance production at the Soho Playhouse is directed by Melanie S. Armer, with live rock music by Tony Finn.

Absurdly comic, "I think it's the kind of wild, rough-and-tumble show that Fringe audiences crave," the playwright told Playbill.com. Muehleck and Armer co-founded LIVE Theater Company to produce this kind of work.

"System Eternal is about a prison town and its denizens," Muehleck explained. "The Commissioner's wife has just been murdered, and her brother is the main suspect. So it's partly a mystery, but it's also absurdly comic and, I hope, topical. The play takes place in an alternate reality, where the whole judicial process has been wiped out."

The writer added, "I wrote the play as a response to certain political trends, but I'm not interested in shoving a message down anyone's throat. System Eternal plays with time and our relationship to events; ultimately, I wanted to experiment with style and push boundaries while still telling a good, solid story."

Here's how the play is billed at the Fringe: "In the prison town of Eternal, no one is innocent. You're either a cop or a criminal; courts don't exist and the death penalty's been banned. But someone new has arrived, and things are about to change. Where will you stand?" The cast includes Tom Biglin, Rodney Gardiner, Robert Gomes, Judy Jerome, Melanie Julian, Scott Mitchell Kelly, Michael J. Lombardi, George R. Sheffey, Eric Talley II and Will Vought.

Muehleck's other plays include The Invisible World, Tagging April, The Honeypot Redux. He earned The John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting and was a Heideman Award finalist.

Performances play Aug. 13 at 2:45 PM, Aug. 14 at 4:15 PM, Aug. 18 at 8 PM and Aug. 21 at 5:45 PM.

Soho Playhouse is at 15 Vandam Street between Sixth Avenue and Varick.

For tickets ($15) and more information, call (212) 279 4488 or visit www.FringeNYC.org.