The Show, August 27, 2012

Neil Labute was not your average Mormon. He's not even your average ex-Mormon. He is a writer who takes your hand, leads you into the forest, and then lets go. He's done it over and over again with his plays - many of which have been adapted to cinema. (In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, reasons to be pretty.) As a playwright, he's not a nice guy. He strips flesh from his characters and his audiences walk out dazed and haunted. (What makes it all worse is that, quite often, the audience has laughed during the torture!)

In a Dark, Dark House - continuing this week at the tiny Unit 102 Theatre - carries on the Labute tradition. Two brothers may or may not have lived through sexual abuse by a friend. This is simply a premise for a flood of recriminations and anger between the two - one of whom has been incarcerated in a psychiatric facility for observation and hopes his brother's memories of the abuse will free him.