Seeing shows at Berkeley Rep is an exciting and revivifying experience, with new works like Green Day's American Idiot and 2008's Passing Strange that essentially do their Broadway tryouts there, and talents like Les Waters, Sarah Jones, Carrie Fisher and Matthew Sweet all eager to present their work there. It's a cosmopolitan and smart organization, and they offer up the kind of theater the Bay Area deserves to see on a regular basis — especially given the vibrant music, food, and art scenes that thrive here.

Berkeley Rep's latest production, a world premiere written by Naomi Iizuka and directed by Waters, is no exception. Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West is a taut and well executed play, with clever shifts in time that give it an epic scope while still hewing closely to a few characters and what they have to say.