“An adolescent searching for guidance finds her inner voice.” That’s the tagline on the cover of the program for “Miracle Fish,” the current production by the College of Marin’s drama department through March 16. It’s as good a description as any for this eclectic 70-minute exercise in theatrical arts.

Against a backdrop of swimming goldfish, a young girl named Lark (Tegan Mack) floats uneasily between the blended families of her divorced parents. She’s not really comfortable with either of them, and is further alienated by the looming world at large, made more mysterious by the characters she encounters and their inscrutable advice, and the recurring recitations and projections of poems by Ada Limón, the 24th U.S. poet laureate and the author of several books of poetry.

Taking its name from a cheesy carnival souvenir Lark receives from a fortune teller (Ciara Bailitz, excellent in the role), “Miracle Fish” is an example of what director Erin McBride Africa calls “devised theater”— a performance based not on a script by a solo author, but one invented by performers and technicians working together around a core idea.

The result is a small part linear storytelling — we first meet Lark and her problematic families, and there’s a funeral scene near the end — and a larger part absurdist theater, with scenes cascading quickly like drunken non sequiturs one upon the other. Random though it may appear, it’s all executed with precision by an exemplary seven-member cast, entering the compact Studio Theatre from every direction and making set changes instantly. There’s not a dead moment in the entire piece.

Most of all, “Miracle Fish” is a celebration of Limón’s poetry — here, mostly musings on the natural world, delivered with gravitas by Sarah Liller as “Poet.” Confident and with beautifully clear vocal articulation, Liller is the production’s standout performer. Mack also embodies her character flawlessly, conveying confusion, anxiety and determination at every turn.

Sisi M. Parry Hansen is convincing as Simone, Lark’s mother, and in two other roles. The rest of the cast all appear in multiple roles, some as various birds and deer, and as quirky humans with odd advice and commentary. They’re all fully committed to this fascinating exercise in theatrical arts.

Immersive projections by Jorge Castillo add enormously to the impact of the show. He commented that many of the video clips were shot locally, and that he created the onscreen poetry by cutting lines from Limón’s book and laying them out to be photographed. The result is compelling visual art to reinforce an enactment of a dreamscape.

Devised theater may not be for everyone, but it has as much a place in the training of actors as does learning improvisation for musicians. Legendary film director Robert Altman was known to encourage improvisation among everyone working on one of his projects — not merely the actors, but the camera operators and set dressers, too.

“Miracle Fish” plays in a similar way. It’s a quick-moving 70 minutes; the fact that it’s free notches it up considerably on the recommendation scale.

McBride Africa mentioned that a truncated version will be performed March 13, with a reading by Limón. Plus, every attendee gets to take home a souvenir — a squirmy little red fish that may or may not predict the future.

Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact him at barry.m.willis@gmail.com.