Pauline Kael once wrote that movies are the American theater. We watch them so we can talk about them.

Charles L. Mee’s “bobrauschenbergamerica” - ending its 2-weekend run at UCSB’s Performing Arts Theater this Friday and Saturday - aims to draw the conversation back into the live theater. If anything can work that miracle, or at least start things moving that way, this ought to be able to do it.

There is a fixed set of characters - “Bob’s Mom,” “Becker,” “Phil,” etc. - and the individual scenes each have a definite shape that is both compelling and satisfying. But they don’t fit together so much as a play as a kind of living pop art tapestry- with a script by William Saroyan, Kurt Vonnegut, and Sam Sheperd; edited by William Burroughs.

There are dramatic scenes, some of them almost harrowing. There are musical numbers -- one a soft-shoe dance by the entire cast to the tune of “I don’t want to set the world on fire” is as lovely and mysterious as anything I have seen of late. It is not a matter of the whole not being equal to the sum of its parts, because the parts don’t really add up to anything, while, considered as a whole, the piece is worth more than any of the parts could validate.

The cast strikingly good. Many I have seen before, but they showed me more in this piece than I would have guessed was in them. Some of the turns they take catch the audience by surprise. A couple of times I knew I should have applauded, as after a music hall sketch, but the moment passed and I felt that I should either applaud every scene or number, or wait until the end. Alex Knox did a brilliance dance solo, then gave us all a look as who would said, “Take it or leave it, stiffs.” Nikki Winkelman gave a powerful, virtuoso performance -- partly with her mouth full of cake -- that just left me stunned by its maturity and insight. But they were all wonderful, and I am going to try to get back and see it again.

Tickets are available from the Arts and Lectures ticket office, 893-3535. It’s a small theater -- Performing Arts -- with no late seating, and it’s a very good show, so you might have to hustle to get into one of the two remaining performances. But you should.

COURTESY PHOTO