With The Udmurts, Defunkt Theatre tries to revive a winning combo with David Zellnik, playwright of 2014’s Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom. Using a real-life pagan enclave in Russia, the play manages to be about the Udmurt pagan tradition, post-Communist nostalgia, sexuality, economics, and, yes, the goddamn theater. I'm not saying plays about plays are never worthwhile, but the idea that the theater is a worthier form of religion is not implied in this one so much as explicitly stated in more than one absurdly dramatic monologue. Between stretches of pretentious glad-handing, the script does offer many moments of intelligent, emotional writing. It's worth the ride, assuming you can stomach the occasional bout of self-congratulatory theater worship. THOMAS ROSS