Nazareth Hassan’s play Bowl EP, now playing at the Vineyard Theatre in a coproduction with the National Black Theater and the New Group, pulses with the inventiveness and infectious energy of something entirely new. It’s a quasi-love story about two young men who meet cute at a skate park, then reconnect to get high together, skate a little, swap ideas and rhymes for a two-man hip-hop act (focusing especially on choosing a name for their group), and flirt outrageously with each other.

The setting is a swimming pool turned skate park that’s been assembled in the Vineyard’s Union Square black-box space, with the audience seated around the pool’s plywood deck on all four sides separated only by a chain-link fence. (Adam Rigg and Anton Volovsek designed the set, which is lit by Kate McGee.) In short scenes introduced with title cards projected onto the pool walls (video and projection design by Zavier Augustus Lee Taylor), we follow two winsome young men through the initial bursts of their romantic and artistic collaboration. Kelly K. Klarkson (Essence Lotus) is the more overtly flirty one, while Quentavius da Quitter (Oghenero Gbaje) appears more reserved until growing comfortable with the power in their budding relationship.

But when the two drop some acid, Bowl EP pulls a 180 alley-oop with the introduction of Lemon Pepper Wings (Felicia Curry), a pangender demon who initially takes the form of a giant cosplay Hello Kitty lookalike (costumes by DeShon Elem). Curry delivers a long, furious rant that leads to an act of shocking violence underscoring the precariousness of black, queer lives in the 21st century. Lemon Pepper Wings also goads our two heroes into a mini-concert where they perform a number of nimbly composed, wordplay-heavy raps composed by Hassan and the musician-lyricist Free Fool.

Hassan, who also directs, has packed a lot of different elements and tones into his story, and they don’t always quite cohere — but he’s smart to give the show an episodic structure where the jump between audio tracks (or chapters) is less jarring than a skipped vinyl record. Bowl EP is a work of startling originality, but with underlying humanism that adds depth to the surface outrageousness. ★★★★☆

BOWL EP
Vineyard Theatre, Off Broadway
Running time: 85 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets on sale through June 8 for $40 to $107