The bizarre alliance of science and theater, pioneered by the likes of "Copenhagen" and "Schrodinger's Girlfriend," has moved one step deeper into quantum space with "L'Universe" by the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

What the Brothers have done with this show, which opened Tuesday at Berkeley Rep's Roda Theatre, is create a multidiscipline menage a trois by tossing vaudeville into the science/theater equation. The result is a bizarre blending of show business and scientific tomfoolery that essentially proves all of the secrets of the universe can be found in juggling.

To mention that the Brothers began their performing lives about 30 years ago as San Francisco street performers specializing in comic juggling might explain their particular prejudices toward a logical explanation of all nature's secrets. But if their act doesn't dazzle you enough to remove any thoughts of logic from your mind, they just aren't doing their job.

The Brothers worked with MIT on the project, and for all most of those in the audience know, much of what they say could be based on sound concepts of advanced math. Or it could be comic double talk. It really doesn't matter, since the show is going for laughs rather than academic credit, and the Brothers (Paul Magid, Howard Jay Patterson, Mark Ettinger and Roderick Kimball) succeed beautifully in that department.

In fact, for those who remember the group from a time too far back to comfortably admit to remembering, the act is fundamentally built from the same basic building blocks--world-class juggling (including a juggling/percussion element that turns juggling balls into musical instruments), along with wordplay that becomes verbal juggling, a bizarre juxtaposition of ideas and enough music to keep the feet tapping.

This, then, is what happens when street performers operate on a considerably higher budget. The concepts get a little more complicated and the presentation, heavy with colored lights and complex gadgetry, looks a bit like a late-night merger of FAO Schwarz and Radio Shack.

And it is this technology that sparkles, literally and figuratively, in the production, adding tremendously to the Brothers' impersonations of scientists through the ages: Aristotle, Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo and Albert Einstein.

Even their juggling clubs are high-tech; they glitter with lights that change color in mid-air. But they don't hold a virtual candle to the high-tech stage trappings that allow the brothers to play volleyball with the Earth and moon, take shadows to new heights of absurdity and even wear computerized suits that track their movements around the stage and turn them into music.

If all this sounds kind of bizarre, rest assured, it is. The scientific backdrop for the Karamazov's (sic) craziness is like a trip to the laboratory of a wacky mad scientist. The equipment is impressive as all get-out, but its comedic possibilities are explored much more deeply than any sort of benefits to mankind--unless you figure making people laugh is benefit enough to mankind.

The piece runs about two hours with a single intermission, and that may be a bit too long for those not caught in the thrall of the sci-fi comedy gadgets and gimmicks. The show probably would have worked better as an intermission-free 90 minutes because it is basically a vaudeville act stretched into a full evening.

And, by the way, "L'Universe" is pronounced "Looneyverse," which tells you all you need to know about the show.

Pat Craig is the Times theater critic. He can be reached at 925-945-4736 or at pcraig@cctimes.com