Neil LaBute ventures into white-trash territory (with the feeling of there-but-for-the-grace-of-god, as he writes in his program note). It's a land of teenage pregnancies, junk food, and fighting with your step-parents, where an assignation between budding sweethearts is made with the offer "Still got detention later?" It's an emotionally draining long one-act. LaBute succeeds at giving these people a voice, albeit one with an occasional elevated turn of diction.

Logan Marshall-Green delivers excellent, exposed work as Tim, purportedly the stupider of a pair of kids stuck in dead-end jobs; but Tim turns out to be wise in spite of himself, and finds a harsh way to redemption at a shuttered penguin exhibit at the zoo. Good staged combat between Tim and his mate Darrell, designed by Rick Sordelet, looks painful and yet safe. Robert Kaplowitz takes the credit for a shrill, insistent crying baby sound effect; he finds a way to localize the effect within a baby carrier (actually a duffle bag, but that's another story).

posted: 5:07:28 PM