If you missed Rajiv Joseph’s splendid Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo in its world premiere last year at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, you have another chance. The Pulitzer Prize finalist is at the Mark Taper Forum through May 30 with the original cast and the same brilliant director, Moisés Kaufman.

Inspired by a short Associated Press item in 2003 reporting that an American soldier had killed a tiger in the Baghdad zoo that had bitten off the finger of a drunken soldier trying to feed it, Joseph has fashioned a brilliant philosophical and surreal ghost story about reality and corruption, war and greed and the ghosts that haunt us. I have seen it three times and feel there is still more to be gleaned from this astonishing script.

The show is anchored by the Dante-savvy two-legged Tiger (Kevin Tighe), acting as resident philosopher, who can discuss epistemology and faith (“all animals are atheists,” he maintains), the nature and drawbacks of “tigerness,” hunger and the stupidity of lions with a profane and very funny sensibility.

The time is shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, and even the zoo is being strafed. Marines Kev (Brad Fleischer) and Tom (Glenn Davis), sent to guard the zoo, stand outside the Tiger’s cage.

Kev is a young Marine on his first Iraq tour. The kid has a trigger-happy computer games idea of war who can’t wait to put into practice the techniques he’s been taught.

Kev’s youthful impetuousness is tempered by more experienced Tom, who proudly shows off one piece of booty from a previous raid – Uday Hussein’s gold-plated pistol, taken from one of Saddam’s palaces, with which he hopes to get home and start a new, more opulent life, courtesy of eBay.

A foolish show of bravado ends with the loss of Tom’s hand and the death of the Tiger at the hands of Kev and the golden gun. But the Tiger doesn’t disappear; he comes back to haunt Kev and describe the Tiger afterlife.

The soldiers’ unit is aided by translator Musa (Arian Moayed), formerly Uday’s gardener, haunted by ghosts of his own: Uday, even in death resplendent in a silk Armani suit and fancy shoes, reminding Musa of the depravity power can bring; and Musa’s younger sister Hadia (Sheila Vand), raped and murdered by Uday.

Most of these living characters will reach a breaking point. The questions are what it takes to get there and what happens next.

Lest this sound like a heavy philosophical slog with a Message, rest assured that there are more laughs per scene than in many comedies. Didactic this is not; Joseph has concocted a wonderful mélange of comic and serious, philosophical and plebeian, real and surreal, delivered by a superb cast.

Tighe is spectacular as the Tiger, an old pro who’s seen it all but still hasn’t figured it all out. In death, he even begins to question his nature and whether he’s had it wrong all this time: “When an atheist finds himself walking around after death, he’s got some serious re-evaluating to do.”

Fleischer and Davis are excellent as the young Marines clearly out of their depth in this puzzling situation, but coping as best they can, Fleischer’s wide-eyed innocence contrasting with Davis’ faux confidence.

Hrach Titizian’s unctuous, arrogant Uday inspires disgust as the soul and incarnation of evil; yet even he will pose troublesome questions that invite reflection.

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is the best kind of theater, the kind that will make you laugh even as it makes you feel and think. It will lodge itself in your mind and give you food for thought for a very long time. Don’t miss the opportunity to see this extraordinary play.

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo plays through May 30, 2010 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Shows Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m.; Sagturday at 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. For tickets call (213) 628-2772 or visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

A man (Steven Lone) tries a catalog of pickup lines in an attempt to connect with an attractive woman (Karson St. John) reading at a café table. With each failure, a bell rings, time rewinds and he tries a different tack.

Three chimps named Milton, Swift and Kafka (Lone, Brian Mackey, Kim Strassburger) are shut up in a room with typewriters. Why? A team of researchers wants to see whether they will eventually write Hamlet . This proves difficult, since they don’t know what Hamlet is.

“Why Hamlet?” asks Swift. “What’s Hamlet to them or them to Hamlet?”

“All he wants is a clean draft of somebody else’s work,” complains Swift. “We’re getting peanuts here, to be somebody’s hack.”

Meanwhile, Kafka is writing “K K K K K.”

“What is that – postmodernism?” Swift asks.

A girl with a stutter (St. John) signs up for lessons in a faker-than-Esperanto (not to mention nonexistent) universal language called Unamunda – and may learn another language.

These are three of the setups from David Ives’ wild and wacky All in the Timing, playing through May 29 at ion theatre’s BLKBOX at 6th@Penn in Hillcrest. Ion founders Glenn Paris and Claudio Raygoza split directing chores for this series of six scenes or very short one-acts.

You don’t want to get stuck in The Philadelphia, a terrible black hole of a place where you can’t get either a waitress’ attention or the food you want. Alan (Mackey) explains the solution to Marcos (Lone): reverse psychology.

Variations on the Death of Trotsky posits six possible (and silly) ways Trotsky (Mackey) might have spent his last few minutes, one involving the Trotskys’ gardener Ramon (Lone).

Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread is a hilarious parody on the famous minimalist composer. Glass tries to buy bread from a baker, while two women speculate on whether that is Glass. Repetition abounds, as does a sort of jerky rhythm typical of Glass’ music.

Ives has a Gary Larson sensibility that requires actors who can morph easily from one off-the-wall character to another, shlepping their own props and moving furniture along the way. It helps to have a grounding in history, music and literature, but it’s funny even without that.

These days a little alternate reality sounds like a pretty good idea. The gang at ion theatre has just the recipe.

All in the Timing plays through May 29 at ion theatre in Hillcrest. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinee Saturday at 4 p.m. Starting May 14, All in the Timing will run in repertory with Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. For tickets call (619) 600-5020 or visit www.iontheatre.com.