When Quentin Tarantino's first directing effort, Reservoir Dogs, landed in 1992, I'd never seen anything like it. That's not to say there'd never been anything like it. No, Tarantino came of age as a video clerk, and as I dug deeper into Netflix, I found similarities to any number of obscure films QT admits he knew. I don't believe that takes anything away from his achievement, mind you, but it's contextually important as we discuss Theater Artists Olympia's live-on-stage reenactment of Tarantino's pastiche of homages.

On the off chance you've never seen the movie, here's the gist: a crime boss named Joe Cabot and his adult son, "Nice Guy Eddie," hire six thugs under pseudonyms to pull a diamond heist. The heist, which we never see, goes utterly sideways, and the thieves reassemble at their hideout to ascertain what went wrong. They decide there's a snitch among them, guns are drawn, guns are fired and it all gets rather bloodily Jacobean.

Director Pug Bujeaud stages the screenplay with no intermission - nothing more, nothing less. Only about two minutes' worth of material is presented in audio or video form, though a few scenes are juggled. There's even a title sequence. But wait! Performances alternate between all-male and all-female casts. I caught the male cast at its final dress rehearsal. The show was slickly produced, and its cast, especially Brian Jansen as Mr. Pink, was quite good indeed. Jansen plays Pink as if he never heard of Steve Buscemi, and reminds us that when directors call for more energy, they usually mean urgency. Jansen has it in spades. I also enjoyed Tim Shute as hard-assed Joe Cabot and Gabe McClelland's stentorian Nice Guy Eddie.

Again, it's all gamely produced and hit the audience with a roar of gunshot cool, yet I found it left me dispirited. Michael Christopher plays Mr. Blonde with a singsong sociopathy, and the gory Stealers Wheel scene is presented completely intact (with photoreal prosthesis by Mass FX). I'm pretty sure all 272 cinematic instances of the F-bomb are included, and the thieves speak to each other in odious strains of racist, sexist, homophobic invective. It was awful behavior in 1992 and feels doubly so now. I know they're not good people, but holy cow, these are truly awful people. I wondered how scenes like the famous diner exegesis of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" will play coming out of women's mouths.

I admired TAO's production. I sure did. I just I can't say I enjoyed it. It crawled under my skin and stayed there for hours, idly brandishing a straight razor.

THEATER ARTISTS OLYMPIA, RESERVOIR DOGS, MALE CAST APRIL 11, 13, 19, 21, 25, 27 AT 7:30 P.M., APRIL 12, 20, 26 AT 10 P.M., APRIL 14 AT 2:30 P.M., FEMALE CAST APRIL 12, 14, 18, 20, 26 AT 7:30 P.M., APRIL 13, 19, 27 AT 10 P.M., APRIL 21, 28 AT 2:30 P.M., $12, 113 COLUMBIA ST. NW, OLYMPIA, 360.357.3471