Ads for Theater Artists Olympia's A Bucket of Blood pose the question, "Who is Walter Paisley?" It's unlikely you've ever seen Roger Corman's 1959 B-movie original, so I'll fill you in. Walter Paisley is a miserable busboy in a late-‘50s Beat club called the Yellow Door. He's not the sharpest crayon in the box, frankly, but he wants to be an artist all the same. He idolizes Ginsberg wannabe Maxwell Brock (Ryan Holmberg) and moons after a local art enthusiast, Carla. When it becomes painfully obvious that his talents will never bloom without divine (diabolical?) intervention, he turns to the macabre as a shortcut to fame and hipster glory. "Inside every artist," the poster warns, "lurks A MADMAN!" We note with irony the A in T-A-O.

As grisly as its title sounds, A Bucket of Blood is a charmer. At 12 measly dollars a ticket, it'd enliven any oddball date night. Check it out, cats and kits: it's a stone gas.

Read Christian Carvajal's full review of A Bucket of Blood in the Arts section at weeklyvolcano.com.

A Bucket of Blood

Through March 4, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $12
Theater Artists Olympia, 805 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia
360.357.3471