Unsettling truths lie at the center of 'Dying City'

DURHAM -- At the start of "Dying City," a play about the wars people wage with themselves and each other, the central character sits in front of her television, watching "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." She knows what to expect. Questions will be raised, the investigators will find the answers, and the show will end.

Playwright Christopher Shinn has a far more disquieting evening in mind for the audience of his taut new one-act play, a series of short, intense scenes that build on each other to form a surprising and devastating picture of personal ruin.

This is the kind of intimate drama that Manbites Dog excels with, particularly when its artistic director, Jeff Storer, is directing, and when the script seamlessly marries the personal with the political, as Shinn's does.

The play is set in the New York apartment of a therapist named Kelly (Dana Marks) whose husband, Craig (Jay O'Berski), died in Iraq under questionable circumstances a year ago. She gets an unwelcome surprise visit from her brother-in-law, Peter (also O'Berski), who is Craig's identical twin.

Ricocheting between two pivotal evenings -- Peter's visit and the night before Craig's deployment -- Shinn reveals a complex web of truths, lies and delusions involving the characters' feelings about the war and about themselves and one another.

What's on Kelly's television serves as shorthand to what period we're in for each scene --military news coverage when Craig is home; the crime drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" after he's dead. But it also mirrors the play's theme of how we as people and as a nation contend -- or refuse to contend --with the darker aspects of ourselves, one another and the world.

Shinn refrains from revealing too much too soon, aside from some unnecessary exposition about the characters' messed-up parents. And he defines his characters less by the content of their dialogue than by its structure, which is full of interruptions, overlaps and unfinished words and thoughts.

Marks and O'Berski navigate Shinn's rhythmic logistics with practiced ease, no doubt aided by their years together as a real-life couple. This enables them to focus on all that is revealed between the lines.

O'Berski delineates his dual roles well. His brooding Craig casts a pall over the apartment, while the seemingly affable Peter, an actor, offers subtle comic relief with his unrelenting self-absorption.

Marks is equally adept, speaking volumes through the smallest gestures and habits. Her conversations, especially toward play's end, are gut-wrenching. But she could speak the whole script through body language alone.

Manbites Dog's compact black box space is ideal for a play like this, putting the audience in discomfiting proximity to the actors, with the theater's black walls magnifying the tension. And Derrick Ivey's angular set design adds to "Dying City's" unsettling feel.

A sad play, unlike its television counterparts, is a hard sell. But "Dying City" is a superb example of the compelling drama that awaits those willing to abandon their television remotes and enlist for the emotional war zone that is live theater at its best.