The Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts wraps its summer cabaret season with Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep. Vep opens Aug. 9 and runs through Aug. 19. ECPA's artistic director Shannon C. M. Flynn helms the spoof of British theatre starring Mark Mattek and Derek Milman. The two actors portray a total of six characters.

The ECPA was created in the early '70s by Yale Drama School graduates who rent the Yale Cabaret theatre in the drama school's off-season. Mattek is a third-year actor at the Yale School of Drama and has appeared in all four of this season's Summer Cabaret offerings by ECPA. His co-star, Milman, is a second-year actor there and has appeared in The Birthday Party, Hamlet and Mad Forest at the Yale School of Drama. He was the original Bill Wade in the Off-Broadway production of Never Swim Alone.

Playwright Charles Ludlam (1943-1987) was the founder of the Ridiculous Theatre Company and taught playwriting at the Yale School of Drama in the '70s and '80s.

Director Shannon C. M. Flynn is founding co-artistic director of the Hunger Artists Theatre in Southern California and helped develop South Coast Repertory Theatre's Pacific Playwrights Festival. Her creative team comprises scenic designer Stuart Polasky, lighting designer Agnieszka Kunska, sound designer Mimi Epstein as well as costume designers Stuart Polasky and Timothy Kerber.

Single tickets are $16, with discounts for students, seniors and groups. Food service, including beer and wine is available before each performance beginning at 7 PM. For information about The Mystery of Irma Vep, call the Summer Cabaret at (203) 432-1567 or visit www.yale.edu/summercabaret. -- By Murdoch McBride