Dark Comedy at Sunstone Studio

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Sunstone Studios 'Exit, Pursued by a Bear'

There’s a man duct taped to a recliner. His wife Nan wants to have a few words with him. Then she’s going to pack the chair with meat and drizzle honey on the driveway, opening up the doors to let the bears have their way with him. He probably deserves it. He’s been abusive. There are people there to see him suffer. Most of them are off stage. It’s OK: this is a play. Lauren Gunderson’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear straps itself down into shadowy, thought-provoking comedy for one weekend only this May.

The man in question is a guy named Kyle played with depth and heart by Jake Konrath. A genuinely charming Nicole McCarty intricately embraces conflicted feelings as the woman who has incarcerated him in a La-Z-Boy. She’s not alone. A couple of friends help Nan re-enact moments from the past of husband and wife. Christopher Orth plays to surreal intensifications of deeply concerned enthusiasm as Nan’s friend Simon. Patrice L. Hood is delightfully passionate in the role of a stripper and aspiring actress named Sweetheart who plays a number of roles in the bizarre drama that is staged for Kyle.

Director Stacy Madson locks-in the comic tension. The fact that she working with one of the smallest stages in the city helps immeasurably. The weirdly inescapable intimacy of Sunstone Studios amplifies the comedy, the drama and even the strange, little elements of psychological horror that permeate Gunderson’s script. Madsen finds a heart to the drama that is coated with comedy. What might come across as a bit of a bizarre comic fugue at first glance explores deeper concerns of human intimacy and the cruelty people are capable of. Nan is looking for revenge. What she finds is something altogether more illuminating.

Sunstone Studios’ production of Exit, Pursued by a Bear continues through May 16 on 127 E. Wells St. For ticket reservations, visit sunstonestudiosmke.com