Philadelphia Weekly

Philadelphia was once a haven for dangerous theater. But as often happens, success breeds complacency, and now low-risk, mainstream plays dominate neighborhood stages. There are, however, a handful of companies that continue to present alternative work, including Theatre Exile, which has long been a leader in featuring edgy, explosive drama. The company opens its 12th season with Carlos Murillo's unsettling drama Dark Play or Stories for Boys, which takes audiences on a journey into the mind of young man who practices deceit in a sinister alternate universe known as the World Wide Web.

Like Oscar Wilde's masterpiece The Importance of Being Earnest, Stories focuses on a young man who creates an alternate identity that turns out to be surprisingly similar to his true self. The difference is that while Wilde's comedy is an insightful masterpiece, Murillo's play is manipulative and ultimately unsatisfying.

Stories' protagonist Nick takes great pride in his ability to deceive, and he finds the perfect prey in Adam (Doug Green), a 16-year-old whose online profile states his greatest wish is "to fall in love with a girl." Preying on Adam's gullibility, Nick invents a virtual identity named Rachel in order to perpetuate a cruel hoax. But when Adam insists on a face-to-face meeting, we learn that Nick too is searching for love.

Director Deborah Block makes the most out of Murillo's uneven script and she elicits fine performances from the small cast. DaPonte is impressive as the troubled Nick, managing to be both revolting and oddly sympathetic. As the innocent Adam, Greene gives the finest performance of his young career, and Katie Gould is appropriately alluring as the fictitious Rachel. And in multiple roles both Dave Johnson and Krista Apple are excellent, with Apple in particular giving a wildly funny performance as a flaky acting instructor who believes "games are the essence of theater."

Block's creative staging adroitly utilizes theater's sense of pretense to depict the ease with which Nick executes his masquerade in the virtual world, where identity is malleable and reality is uncertain.

Although Exile should be lauded for presenting lesser-known plays aimed at younger adults, and Murillo's investigation of intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships is at times compelling, Stories' conclusion is disappointingly indecisive. Nick's journey ultimately leads nowhere. In this play about the lies we tell ourselves and others, the truth remains elusive.

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Amaryllis Theatre Company's production of Marie Jones' Rock Doves is set in present-day Belfast, where the war is no longer between Catholics and Protestants but father and son, neighbor and neighbor. In a gritty drama from the author of the overrated Stones in His Pockets, the streets of the Irish city are patrolled by rival gangs more interested in controlling the local drug trade than battling the Brits. As the play begins, a young man (Christopher Imbrosciano) purporting to be a member of an unnamed but clearly nefarious "organization" seeks shelter in a condemned house occupied by Knacker (Michael Toner), a homeless alcoholic. Knacker passes his time by watching a broken television and receiving visits from brothel proprietor Bella (Susan Giddings) and her brother Lillian (Christopher Bohan), a street-savvy transvestite who performs at a local club. Jones' characters are convincing and the relationships hold our interest, but the play's conclusion is too tidy for this otherwise messy tale. Still, there's much to admire in director Mimi Kenney Smith's production, including Jerold R. Forsyth's lighting, which is among the year's best. The veterans Giddings and Toner turn in sturdy performances as the unlikely friends, and Imbrosciano clearly communicates the boy's false bravado. But Bohan is the most impressive. His Lillian is physically imposing, but Bohan also suggests the underlying vulnerability of someone perpetually ostracized by an intolerant community. This shared sense of not belonging brings these four misfits together, but their desperate need for acceptance eventually tears them apart. (J.C.R.) Through Dec. 7. $12-$20. Playground at the Adrienne Theatre, 2030 Sansom St. 215.564.2431.