With a serial-killing sniper still on the loose in Maryland, the mood may be all wrong — or all right —for novelist and playwright Michelle Carter latest work, Ted Kaczynski Killed People With Bombs, debuting at San Francisco's Magic Theatre Oct. 18-Nov. 10.

This look at the serial bomber and paranoid schizophrenic known once only as the Unabomber is directed by Bill Peters (Hunting for Moby Dick).

Part comedy, part tragedy and part vaudeville, Ted Kaczynski explores the life and times of the Unabomber through fictionalized scenes, original songs and text from his infamous manifesto. Officially diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic, Kaczynski was a brilliant mathematician who attended Harvard at 16 and taught at UC Berkeley, before his sickness drove him into an isolated cabin in Montana. Separated from the "techno industrial system" he despised, he sent out mail-bomb missives, killing three and injuring 23, until his brother David turned him in to the FBI. Kaczynski is currently serving a life sentence.

Lyricist and columnist Merle Kessler (perhaps best known by his bitter persona Ian Shoales) stars as Kaczynski. Playing his mother and father, FBI agents, Wild Nature and others are David Cramer, Anne Darragh, Robert Parsons, Celia Shuman and Mark Rafael Truitt.

Tickets are $22-$37. The Magic Theatre is located in Building D at the Fort Mason Center on Marina Boulevard. For reservations, (415) 441-8822. The Magic Theatre is on line at http://www.magictheatre.org. —By Christine Ehren