Rorschach’s back, and in rare form.

After a nearly year-long absence from the theater scene when it lost its performance space, the small but ambitious theater company is returning with a jam-packed schedule stuffed with three works running in July, including a four-part serial. If its first offering, a sexy and meditative staging of the world premiere This Storm Is What We Call Progress is an indication of things to come, we’re in for an exciting summer.

It turns out that Kabbalah-influenced mysticism makes for mighty meaty material for playwright Jason Grote. This Storm‘s story involves three people – a mysterious Woman With Silver Skin (Rena Cherry Brown) who has a powerful hold over her apprentice Lily (Sara Barker), and Adam, a struggling Jewish actor (Karl Miller) who gets swept up into their machinations. Adam’s father went mad when he began exploring the kind of magic Lily and the Woman seem to be delving into, and he begins to wonder whether he’s doing the same.

The impact of This Storm owes much to the seamless performance of Karl Miller. His take on the character is almost jarringly naturalistic, completely without affect. Miller takes what could have been a ranting monologue in worse hands (the soliloquy skewers everything from Woody Allen to Tel Aviv night clubs to NoVa rednecks) and turns it into a compelling statement on modern Jewish culture rather than acting as a mouthpiece for the playwright. His range is also apparent when he takes on the persona of “Adam The Actor”; voice-overs of Adam’s recordings of his one-man show “American Shylock” take on an almost effortless grandeur. Sara Barker is a sensual match for him, equally effective as her character begins to break down from the strain of what she and Adam put each other through. Brown remains an evocative, eerie presence throughout.