EXPERIMENTAL theater too often seems like medicine that’s good for you but hard to swallow. That’s not the case with Young Jean Lee’s “The Shipment,” an examination of black-identity issues that plays like an anarchic variety show.

This talented Korean-American writer/director has concocted a wildly entertaining theater piece that includes stand-up comedy, music, dance and a devastatingly satirical one-act play that Edward Albee would be proud to have written.

The evening begins with a raucous performance of minstrel-show choreography set to a propulsive rock song (Semisonic’s “Fascinating New Thing”). Next is a stand-up comic (Douglas Scott Streater), who delivers a profane, decidedly un-PC monologue about incest, baby hatred, racial politics and other topics too disgusting to mention.

A surreal comic sketch relates the story of a young man (Okieriete Onaodowan) who aspires to rap stardom even as his mother (Amelia Workman) dreams of him becoming a doctor.

Pressured into selling drugs, he winds up in prison, where his career goals are furthered by a fellow inmate who happens to be a record executive.

The final, most seemingly naturalistic segment depicts an upscale cocktail party that goes horribly wrong. Joining riotously funny dialogue with moments of blazing emotional power, it ends with a twist that upends our perception of everything that came before.

The playwright’s ambitions sometimes exceed her grasp, and her ideas aren’t always clearly conveyed. But “The Shipment” – performed to comic perfection by a hugely talented, five-member African-American ensemble – is that rare show that is as gleefully fun as it is serious-minded.

THE SHIPMENT The Kitchen, 512 W. 19th St.; 212-255-5793. Through Saturday.