Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind is a wild cross between Whose Line is it Anyway? and interpretive dance. Performed at the Kaine Theater by the Neo-Futurists, TMLMTBGB combines 30 plays in 60 minutes to make an odd-ball and exciting show.

The performance is centered around the concept that theater should be "a fusion of sport, poetry and living-newspaper." Audience participation is key from the beginning. One does not pay a fixed entrance fee, but instead $11-$16, $10 plus the roll of a six-sided die.

The plays are not performed in order. Instead, the audience chooses which play they want to see next. Across the stage hangs a clothesline carrying numbers with the title of the play on the back. Whenever an actor says "curtain," the audience shouts out a number. A cast member pulls the number from the clothesline and the group performs that play.

Many of the plays are hilarious. A reworking of Romeo and Juliet places the two lovers at a subway stop, one in the train, one on the platform. They speak to each other in the muffled voices of the subway loudspeaker, until Juliet is carried off by a rush-hour train car. In another play, three Neo-Futurists clap a rhythm evocative of tribal dancing. Others stand severely, chanting, "Tootsie Rolls look like poop. Tootsie Rolls look...like poop." The funniest play of the evening was November: When Halloween and Christmas Collide. The cast members arrange themselves to create a nativity scene. The three Magi wear Burger King crowns, and the Virgin Mary is wrapped in a blanket. Christmas music plays. A full-grown Jesus, sprawled across the Virgin, looks up at his mother. A sudden shift in music, and Mary brandishes a dagger over her sonÕs head. She cackles.

Of course, there is no guarantee that a theatergoer would see these plays. At the end of each performance, an audience member is asked to throw a die on the stage. The company promises to take one, plus the number rolled of plays out of the show. As a result, each night is a unique experience. This also means that one might watch an hour of not-so-good plays, like Hopscotch Or So Many Goodbyes Before Dying. In this odd spoof of an ad for depression medication, two women play hopscotch in a corner. At the other end of the stage, a woman hugs, dances and says goodbye to various men, as one actor holds up signs, asking "Do you have trouble sleeping?Ó It is simply too confusing to make an impression.

If the company does not complete the 30 plays in 60 minutes (they performed 29.5 plays the night I went), then they must put on The Dreaded 31st Play. The Neo-Futurists line along the back of the wall, with their bottoms sticking out. An audience member is giving three tennis balls and asked to throw them.

Over half of the audience members at last SaturdayÕs performance had already seen TMLMTBGB. If the show has attracted a cult following, it is because it is a highly entertaining way to spend an evening.