Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the German enfant terrible best known for his New Wave films, also dabbled in playwriting. One of his dramas, Pre-Paradise Sorry Now, is continuing through Oct. 17 at the City Garage, home of the Aresis Ensemble avant-garde theatre group.Based on the infamous English "Moors Murders" committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the play is an exploration of human brutality. Fassbinder uses the murderers and their demented longing for a neo-fascist "paradise" to ridicule conventional notions of man's higher nature. He surrounds them with a black-comedy circus of thugs, whores, transvestites and exploiters who enact repetitive cycles of violence meant to force us to examine our society and the principles upon which it functions.

The City Garage is located in the alley between Santa Monica and Arizona Avenues, between 4th Street and the Third Street Promenade. For tickets and information call (310) 319-9939 or visit www.citygarage.org.

-- By Willard Manus
Southern California Correspondent