An identity crisis  for the theater itself, Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 epitome of absurdism is a masterpiece of blurred dramatic lines, brought cleverly to life in this production from director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota and Théâtre de la Ville, Paris.

A dysfunctional family of six interrupts the rehearsal of a play to make a curious claim: They are characters who’ve been abandoned by their author and are seeking a theater troupe to give them an artful sense of completion. On a spare set, portrayers and portrayed begin to overlap, as fiction and reality follow suit. The result is a beguiling tragedy that turns notions of authorship and agency on their heads while offering humanity critical insight into its own selectively scribed existence.

Founded as a collective two years ago by newly appointed Paris Opera Ballet director and former New York City Ballet principal Benjamin Millepied—along with composer Nico Muhly, founding producer Charles Fabius, and others—the ambitious L.A. Dance Project has already turned heads with its fresh, contemporary vision of dance and stylistically diverse repertory.

For its much-anticipated New York debut, the company presents three pieces: Millepied’s own Reflections, an elegant series of pas de deux and group dances, set against bold graphics by Barbara Kruger and scored by David Lang; rising choreographer and New York City Ballet dancer Justin Peck’s Murder Ballades, a vivacious work in the spirit of Jerome Robbins, with a visual concept by artist Sterling Ruby and music by Bryce Dessner, performed live by eighth blackbird; and William Forsythe’s Quintett, a tender, elegiac piece for five dancers, created by Forsythe as a love letter to his late wife.

Video preview, tickets, and more at BAM.org