By scheduling Craig Lucas’ play “Reckless” as a December show, San Jose Stage Company puts a thumb in the middle of the holiday pudding if not squarely in the eye of Santa Claus. No warm and fuzzies here, although there is a final, last moment attempt at a glimpse of a tunnel that may or may not have a light at the end.

It would be a disservice to the production to recount the story here with its cascading series of events. Suffice it to say it concerns a young mother named Rachel (Halsey Varady) giddy with the spirit of Christmas who gets launched on a trajectory by her reckless husband Tom (Will Springhorn, Jr.) that takes her on a dreamlike journey filled with odd people, none of whom are really what they seem. Along the way “things happen.”

“Reckless” is black comedy at its bleakest and the cast under the direction of Kenneth Kelleher deliver fast-sketch characters at a blistering pace with little time for nuance. The always appealing Halsey Varady starts in high gear and maintains her heavy line load at that pace for long stretches of the play interspersed with scenes of blessed relief where she can actually lie down on a couch telling her story to a series oddball psychiatrists (all played with great verve by Dena Martinez). True sentiment gets batted away save for a few precious moments that end up feeling false in the light of the grim, zany, cartoonish style of the show.

All the major characters have secrets. Michael Navarra as social worker Lloyd has an earnest sweetness that belies dirty doings under another name, likewise his wife Pooty (a disciplined Katie O’Bryon), a deaf-mute paraplegic. And Judith Miller conjures up a growling, ginger-haired, chain-smoking harridan delighting the audience with nastiness.

The set design by Richard C. Ortenblad accommodates the lickety-split drive of the show with a great wall upstage containing a couple of doors and several portals that slide upward or sideways to allow black-clad, ninja-masked stage hands or the cast members themselves to literally run set pieces on or off so as not to slow the hurtling speed of “Reckless.” The excellent, complex sound design by John Koss involves a cunning selection of music as well as hand held mics.

If you are sick of Christmas treacle, have had it with “Nutcrackers” and “Christmas Carols,” The Stage’s “Reckless” might be the antidote. I loved “Bad Santa,” didn’t you? The always-generous opening night audience rewarded the show with copious laughs and applause; maybe you will too.

“Reckless” runs through December 16 at The Stage, First and William in Downtown San Jose.