Sat. June 9

Nothing like a plague to inspire comedy, aye? Nothing like taking existentialist drama and turning into slapstick farce, right? Well, that's what the A.R.T./MXAT Institute class of 2007 is doing in its farewell performance at the Zero Arrow Theatre. It closes Saturday June 9. The play is Eugene Ionesco's (in photo)  "The Killing Game," and it's set in an unnamed town where in 17 short scenes the plague does what plagues do: It doesn't discriminate against rich or poor, nor innocent or guilty. It just ravages. Politicians, of course, attempt to control the uncontrollable and make their empty promises. Who can cope with this? Only and old man and woman, who accept the absurdity and manage to find glimpses of happiness within their dying world. Inspired by Defoe's "Journal of the Plague Year" and Camus' "La Peste" - which was also the name of a great Boston punk band from back in the day - director Scott Zigler has his actors (and us) facing the wall of death with a laugh. Not easy to do. But the French are good at this and Ionesco, who died in 1994, was one of the best. Tickets: $10. Starts at 7:30.

Zero Arrow St., Cambridge, 617-547-8300 amrep.org